I have only just recently discovered the dangerously addictive crack that is Nutella. How I committed such an atrocious sin in the sweet treat world is beyond me. Actually, no, I take that back. I DO know how I took so long to experience its hazelnutty goodness: I knew once I started, I would not be able to stop. And I was right. Truth be told, I am an addict...and I am not ashamed to admit it...much. My BFF is also a Nutella addict, probably more so than myself, so when she discovered the new chocolate hazelnut tarts at Starbucks, she was over the moon about it's tastiness and promptly shot me a text to let me know about her new discovery. Yes, we are total sweet treat enablers. What about it? Anyhow, I made sure to pick one up during their 2 for $2 sale and once I tasted it I let BFF know that I was fairly certain I could make a replica of the tart and basically reaffirmed why I am pretty much the best friggin' BFF on the planet. Truth.
I knew going into tasting one of the tarts that the star ingredient was going to be Nutella, or at least a filling thrown together that tasted similar to Nutella. I mean, this is why my BFF was so excited about the treats to begin with, because it tasted like it was stuffed with hazelnut chocolate crack. My main task was to taste and figure out what the tart crust was made up of. I figured it was likely one of two things: either a shortbread or a pastry crust, and shortbread was the taste test winner in the end. And once I figured out that the two main components were dang deliciously simple ones, I got to work asap in making a tart for bestie that would blow her skirt up AND save her money at the same time, because when you're as obsessed with Tiffany & Co. crap as she is, every penny saved counts. :oP
Ok, so this recipe is ridiculously easy to make an even more ridiculously easy to devour. The ingredient list is pretty short and the process is simple. So, let's begin.
Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts (Starbucks Copycat Recipe)
(makes 1 dozen)
Ingredients
1c. butter, cold
1/2c. confectioner's sugar
2c. unbleached flour
1/4. baking powder
Nutella
Semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream butter, confectioners sugar and baking powder until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Do not over mix or the dough will get too warm and soft.
Once all of the ingredients are combined, transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface. You want to pat the dough down and roll it out to 1/4" thick. The thickness, or lack there of, is an important part of making these tarts. You want the right amount of shortbread sandwiching the delicious filling otherwise, if it's too thick, it will take away from the inside chocolatey goodness and if it's too thin, the dough will crack open and fail at containing the filling inside the middle of the tart. And biting into a buttery tart with a nice, thick layer of Nutella is pretty much the heavenly point of putting the effort into making these to begin with.
If you're not used to working with a shortbread dough or are having trouble with it sticking, you can wrap it in some saran wrap or put it in a ziploc bag and throw it in the fridge for a short while to get it cold enough to work with, minus the annoying sticking. Once you've rolled out all of the dough to the proper thickness, use a simple round biscuit cutter to make perfect circles. When I took pictures of my process making these tarts, I couldn't find my round cutter so I used a heart shaped cookie cutter instead. But since then I found the biscuit cutter and use that one whenever I make these. The hearts are cuter for sure, but the circle ones come together better. If you want to be super authentic you can find a rectangular cutter, but sadly I'm not one of the cool kids on the block with one of those. I haven't been able to find one in the stores for the life of me. But I won't be sad about it. Instead I say "Eff you, damn elitist, hard to find, rectangular cutter! I don't need you anyways. Me and my biscuit cutter are the shit!"
Once you've gotten all of your circles cut into the dough, you want to transfer half of them onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then this is where the deliciousness really happens. You want to spoon a good tablespoon of Nutella in the middle of each shortbread square on your cookie sheet. Then you want to place another shortbread circle on top of the Nutella covered shortbread circle. So essentially you're making a chocolate hazelnut crack sammich! One thing you can do to help the tarts press together better is to lay the top piece of dough into the palm of your hand and press down in the middle a little bit, that way when you lay the top layer onto the Nutella piece, you've created a small crease for the Nutella to smoosh into. This prevents it from smooshing out of the sides of the shortbread when you're pressing it together.
I use my finger tips to push the two layers of dough together at the edges. You could also use a fork, but I've found that when I push the fork into the dough, a lot of it tends to stick into the middle of the fork prongs, and that's just friggin' annoying and ticks me off. And I'm short tempered and curse easily as it is, damn it, so the last thing I need is something like shortbread pissing me off.
Once all of your crack tarts are pressed together, bake them in the oven for 12-15 minutes. You want the edges and bottoms of the tarts to get to a nice, golden brown but you don't want to over bake. I have found that I bake my tarts for 14 minutes and that seems to come out at the perfect buttery, crispness. It's a texture that is delicate and flakey and just crumbles into your mouth when you bite into it.
After you pull your tarts from the oven you want to place them on a rack to cool completely. And once they're properly cooled you can drizzle some melted chocolate chips on top for the finishing touch. You don't need that much chocolate to do the drizzle, so what I do is just put a small amount of semi-sweet chips into a baggie and warm them in the microwave until they're properly melted then I cut a small hole at the edge of the baggie, drizzle my chocolate and then just toss the entire baggie when I'm done. Super easy and zero clean up. :)
I seriously adore these tarts. Far too much than I probably should. They're dangerously addictive, and to be honest, I'd say they're even tastier than the originals. Not to mention less expensive. So if you're a Nutella addict like my BFF and I are, give these bad boys a try. You won't regret it. Or you will, when you find yourself standing on your scale, covered in shortbread crumbs and cursing the increasing numbers. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything. Ahem.
