Purple Hearts

Salted chocolate, caramel, açaí tarts... more purple in spirit than in look. This stuff is rich. I mean really rich. So make sure you have someone (or a few someones) to share it with. This also will take you a bit of time, about 3-4 hours. But in the end, you'll get to eat it, and its worth it.

Chocolate Tart Dough

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1 Large egg yolk
1 Tsp pure vanilla extract (pls don't use vanilla flavoring, it's just never as good)
1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

I use an electric mixer because I just got one, and am obsessed with it, but you could easy hand mix this with a wooden spoon, it will just take a bit longer. Either way, mix butter and confectioners' sugar till smooth. Then add egg yolk and vanilla and mix till smooth.



sift flour and cocoa powder (this makes sure you don't have those evil clumps in your dough) and add to your bowl then mix until just combined; form dough into a disk, seal in plastic wrap, and chill for an hour.



Preheat oven to 325° F. Flour a large surface and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick and press into a tart pan. You can either use a 10-inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom or smaller individual tart pans - I used heart shaped small tart pans. Chill for about 30 minutes.



To bake, line with parchment paper and beans or weights - I didn't have parchment paper, and used garbanzo beans, which works, they just make small indents in the bottom of your tart - not a big deal. Bake with beans for 15 minutes, then pour the beans out and bake for 5-10 minutes more, or until crust is dry. Move to cooling rack.

Caramel Filling

1/2 Cup water
2 Cups granulated sugar
1/4 Cup light corn syrup
1/2 Cup heavy cream
8 Tbsp(1 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp crème fraîche

Put water, sugar and corn syrup into a large saucepan and simmer and stir occasionally till it begins to turn golden. Turn off heat, and add cream (it will bubble ferociously once you begin to stir, but don't worry, it mellows out quickly). Add butter and crème fraîche and stir till smooth. If your caramel doesn't mix completely at first or you have some harder bits, you can put the pan on very low heat as you stir. Once mixed, let cool but stir occasionally so as not to form a crust on top. Pour into your tart and let it set.



Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup heavy cream
3 1/2 ounces extra-bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 Scoops Sambazon Freeze-Dried Açaí Powder



Chop chocolate finely and put into a heatproof bowl. Heat cream to a slight boil and pour over chocolate. Let it sit for a moment, and then stir until smooth. Add in açaí powder and mix. While warm, pour into the tarts as the top layer and place tarts in the fridge to set.



To serve, remove tarts from the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to warm up to room temperature, and sprinkle with salt - I used large sea salt.

Adapted from LOTTIE + DOOF, who adapted a recipe from Marlow&Sons.