Pastry School Diaries: Dark Chocolate & Bailey's Truffle Tart with Oatmeal Cookie Crust & Bailey's Whipped Cream

Hello Beautiful.

Do you have one of those desserts that is your signature dish? You know the one you get special requests from your friends to bring over for a dinner party? Then people say 'ooh did you see what she brought? How did she ever find the time, it looks so decadent and amazing! I bet she bought that at a fancy bakery and put in it her serving dish.' Hah!

If you don't have one of those recipes, well you do now. You can be the belle of the Chocolate Ball. And if you're a guy reading this, well you can be the belle of the ball too...you know if you're into that sort of thing...I can dig it.

And here is the best part. This dessert is damn easy. Really, it's easier than making chocolate chip cookies. I swear. And it gets better. There is LOTS of booze here. In the tart AND the whipped cream. Whoo-frickin-hoo.

Once you prepare the tart you need to let it chill for at least 6 hours (or overnight in the fridge). I prepared this before I went to bed and when I woke up in the morning I whipped up the cream and took the photos. See the thing about taking these photos is you MUST eat what you photograph immediately, I mean you're taking all sorts of close-up shots getting personal with the pie...how could it ever be avoided?

So here I am before 9am eating this tart filled to the max with Baileys. Yep I had a great little buzz going before I even had my coffee. What more of a reason do you need to go out and make this for yourself?

The original recipe didn't call for a crust, which is fine if you're in a rush. BUT, I would say that the crust is more than worth the time and effort. The chocolate ganache is so elegant and silky and rich beyond belief. I found that the crunchy, sweet crust add a nice contrast to the smoothness of the chocolate. You need a bit of texture here to help balance out the plate. Then of course a hearty dollop of the whipped (and boozed up) cream is the cherry on top.

One last note. The recipe calls for 'good quality milk chocolate' aka Valrhona or something similar I suppose. Well, all I had was good ole' chocolate chips in the house and let me tell you what you'd never know the difference. I am always a pusher for quality products but the chocolate chips worked just fine.

Dark Chocolate & Bailey's Truffle Tart with Oatmeal Cookie Crust & Bailey's Whipped Cream

*for a printable version click here

For the crust:

Ingredients:
2 cups ground oatmeal cookies (in a food processor)
3.5 oz. melted butter

For the tart:

Ingredients
15 oz. good quality dark chocolate (or 1.5 bags dark chocolate chips)
12 oz. heavy cream
4 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream (I used the Hazelnut flavor but any of them will do)
Shaved chocolate for garnish (I used dusted cocoa as I didn't have any chocolate on hand)

For the whipped cream:

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter or Crisco. I use a sandwhich baggie as a glove to easily cover the pan.

Place ground up cookies in a medium size bowl and add melted butter. Using your fingers or a spoon incorporate butter into cookies until evenly coated and forms a crumbly mixture. If the cookies seem too dry you can add a little bit more melted butter, 1 teaspoon at a time until you've reached the desired consistency.

Press cookie crumbles into the bottom of the greased pan and press down to compact. Make sure you've got a nice, even layer. Bake for 4-5 minutes or until top is light brown. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

Place chocolate in heat safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds and stir with rubber spatula. Heat for another 30 seconds and stir. Additional you can melt the chocolate in a double broiler if you prefer. Continue microwaving in 10 second intervals until smooth.

As you can see I had some help with the next step...

Combine the heavy cream and Bailey's in a small saucepan and heat on low to medium heat. You want the mixture to be warm to the touch but not boiling (then you'd cook away the alcohol, oh no no)

Add melted chocolate to the cream mixture and whisk thouroughly until fully incorporated, about 5 minutes. Pour chocolate oven baked crust. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Once cooled, sprinkle with chocolate shavings or dust with cocoa powder.

To prepare the whipped cream, combine heavy cream, Bailey's, and vanilla extact in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high until peaks form. Add powdered sugar (be sure to sift in so you won't get any lumps!). Beat to incorporate sugar. Give yourself a dollop and enjoy. This one is spectacular.

Sorry for so many photos but I felt like I was photographing a super model.