Chocolate Tarts with Coconut ‘Pastry’ Shells – GLUTEN PHREE 6

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Last week, an old phriend of mine put in a request for a Gluten Phree post and because I like her lots, I said ok! Hehehe…… OF COURSE I like her, she’s my phriend, but apart from that, I thought it was a GREAT suggestion AND the PERFECT recipe came straight to my mind…so I knew it wasn’t going to be a crazy challenge!

I’ve been making these small tarts for YEARS for a few reasons. I will outline those reasons now, but before I do, I can pretty much guarantee you would be able to guess them. 1) They’re EAAAAAAAAAAAASY and QUICK to make (common Phoodie themes 2) They taste DELICIOUS (common Phoodie theme) and 3) They’re super IMPRESSIVE! (common Phoodie theme)

Chocolate tarts in a Coconut “pastry” shell. Yummmmm-eeeeeeee!

I’M a HUGE coconut phan AND a chocolate lover, so I pair this ‘pastry’ shell with chocolate but there are iNFINITE possibilities here! Basically, anything that tastes nice with coconut can be dolloped into the shell and gobbled up! In addition there is flexibility in the size that you make them. I always tend to make them as a one person dessert portion size but there’s no stopping you using a mini-quiche tin and making bite size ones, and similarly, using a large quiche tin and making a pie sized one that you cut into slices!

INGREDIENTS

Makes 7 tarts, 8cm diameter tins

TART SHELLS

2 cups finely desiccated coconut

2 egg whites

1/2 cup white sugar

CHOCOLATE FILLING

400g dark chocolate

300ml thick cream

METHOD

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place coconut, sugar and egg whites (NO YELLOW NO YELLOW NO YELLOW) into a large mixing bowl and combine. Once combined it should look and feel like fluffy snow!

2) Butter tins WELL, very, very, very, very, VERYVERYVERY well……and then press mixture into them, starting with the base and then evenly up the sides. You want it to be about 4mm thick the whole way around

3) Place into the oven (preheated 180 deg cel) for abouttttttttttttt 12 mins – or until golden all over and crisp edges. Once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool before removing from tin.

4) Whilst tart shells are cooling, make your ganache filling. For more info on making ganache, check THIS  post and THIS one and THIS one and a million others! It’s so easy!! You just want to start melting your chocolate on a gentle heat on the stove, when half melted, add the cream slowly, stirring the whole time, until combined, thick, glossy and coating the back of the spoon. Take off the heat.

5) Allow the ganache to cool a little bit, about 10 mins or so and then fill the tart shells CAREFULLY! Use a tablespoon to do this as you don’t want to drip chocolate down the edges of the shells etc – it’s all about presentation here!!! Ahhhhh, by the way….. is your mouth DROOOOOLING just about now?!!?!? LOOK – AT – THAT – CHOCOLATE!!!!

6) Leave on bench to set for about 1hr or so, even longer, or if you want them firm, firm, place in fridge for an hour. Then they’re ready to eat! You can serve them with cream, berries or just a gorgeous espresso!

And that, Phans, is it!! Voila! I mean HOW GORGEOUS and special are these!? I really hope you enjoyed reading this post and looking at these pics as much as I enjoyed cooking the tarts. Be sure to let me know what you think by leaving a comment below. And phor more Phoodie phun, if you haven’t yet, please come and like us on Phacebook, or phollow me on twitter (@phoodietweets) Become a part of the community! SPREAD THE WORD! Phoodie to conquer the WORLD!!!!! www.phoodie.com.au