Mini Chocolate Tarts

Up until recently, I’ve never been much into baking. But when your wife is a baker and your son’s growing kitchen interest is all about baking chocolate chip cookies and making macarons (whaaat?) you learn to get dirty and wield a whisk.

He’s the reason why I bake. I may never be a baking ninja, but my boy and I are learning to be bakers in our own way. We’ve tackled and aced his favorite pumpkin muffin recipe from his mom, tried and failed at macarons, more successfully ate brownies than made brownies—but best of all we did it together. 

Kitchen time is fun time in my house. We queue up and rock out to our favorite playlist. Most times we are getting it done by dividing duties. If he has dry ingredients, I take wet ingredients. If he’s on mix duty, I have clean-up. It works. But like I mentioned, most times we are getting it done. When we aren’t it usually involves calling in my wife Naomi for a little direction. Before you know it we are all crammed in a tiny kitchen with a toddler tugging on me, saying “Me too, Daddy”.

It’s family times like these that keep me baking. I love my little guy’s proud face when he pulls a successful recipe out of the oven. To keep this Mini Chocolate Tart recipe kid-friendly, we started with pre-made tart shells then worked the filling with some HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips and finished  assembling it with a little HERSHEY’S Caramel Topping and a quick dusting of HERSHEY’S Unsweetened Cocoa Powder once they came out of the oven.

Yay to another kitchen win and more memories with my little guy who gives more reason for why I bake.

**This is a sponsored post in collaboration with my HERSHEY partnership. All opinions are my own.

Mini Chocolate Tarts

Makes about 30 two-inch tarts

• 6 oz. HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ¼ cup HERSHEY’S Caramel Topping
• 1 tablespoon HERSHEY’S Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 30 pre-made two-inch tart shells (homemade recipe below)

Heat oven to 350F. Place mini tart shells on a baking sheet.

In small sauce pan, over low heat, stir together butter and HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips. Continue to cook and stir until chocolate is melted and well blended with butter.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until well blended. Pour  3-4 tablespoons of chocolate mixture into egg mixture, whisk to combine. Pour another 3-4 tablespoons of chocolate mixture into egg mixture to help temper the eggs further. Stir in remaining chocolate mixture.

Place one ½ teaspoon HERSHEY’S Caramel Topping in each tart shell and fill remainder of tart shell with chocolate batter. Bake at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes, or until chocolate center slightly jiggles when tapped on the side.

Dust finished tarts with HERSHEY’S Unsweetened Cocoa Powder.

Tart Dough Recipe

Makes enough dough for a 10” tart or one dozen 2” tartlets

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons very cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold unsalted butter

In a small bowl combine the egg yolk, water and vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse to combine the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is the size of peas, about 10 pulses. Add in the egg yolk mixture and continue to pulse until the dough pulls together and does not crumble when pinched between two fingers.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface, pat into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Using a 3 inch round cutter, stamp out circles and press dough into a mini tart pan or a mini muffin pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Tart shells can be made 3 days in advance and kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.