Recipe: Milk Chocolate Pistachio Tart

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Recipe: Milk Chocolate Pistachio Tart: "

Recipe Source: Dusoulier, Clotilde. "Vive la Tarte!" Martha Stewart Living no. 199 p. 180, June 2010. Find the original recipe online here.

When I was a little girl pistachios were a big deal. They always came in their shells, which had been dyed a kind of brilliant red that stained the tips of your fingers. I have no idea how they got that way. They made appearances at Christmas, when I would have to be told multiple times that it was perhaps not the most polite thing to eat all of them. (But really, which would you rather do: have pistachios and eat them, or be polite? Especially when you're five?) My love for pistachios has continued into adulthood, but it's changed a bit. Now I know that I can cook with them. I do cook with them on a regular basis, too. When I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living I knew I had to have it. After all, chocolate and pistachios? What can possibly go wrong?

I really only made one change to this recipe. I'd like to have made more, but I don't usually make a lot of changes to baked goods. The change was olive oil for safflower oil. I don't keep safflower oil on hand and don't have the storage space for a whole lot of oils, so I use olive oil for almost everything. There were probably a couple of procedural changes as well. When the tart first came out of the oven I was kind of disappointed. This did not look like I had envisioned. I was almost ashamed to serve it, but served it anyway. I'm glad I did. It was delicious. Amazingly delicious. Even my husband liked it.

Milk Chocolate Pistachio Tart (serves 10; approx. $0.92/serving)

¾ cup flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup chopped pistachios

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick butter

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup pistachios

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon olive oil

5 ounces milk chocolate chips

½ cup heavy cream

¼ cup whole milk

1 egg, beaten

Equipment:

• Fluted tart pan
  
• Mixing bowl
  
• Heatproof bowl
  
• Small saucepan
  
• Food processor
  
• Stand mixer

1. Lubricate the fluted tart pan with your lubricant of choice. The original recommended cooking spray, which is usually my preference, but if you've got a different favorite try it and let me know how it comes out.
   
2. Combine the flour, first ½ cup chopped pistachios, cocoa powder and salt in your mixing bowl. I'm finding the flexible-side mixing bowls to be very useful for this sort of thing – they make it a lot easier to pour the stuff into the mixing bowl. If you don't have them, though, I don't know that it's worth going out and buying some
   
3. Put the butter in your stand mixer bowl and beat on medium until "fluffy." You'll know when that is.
   
4. Add the sugar to the butter. Beat until pale.
   
5. Reduce speed to low and add vanilla.
   
6. Add the flour mixture. Beat until barely combined and the dough holds together. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
   
7. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan. Refrigerate until firm, at least one hour.
   
8. Preheat your oven to 325.
   
9. Bake the crust 30 minutes. Let cool completely and lower temperature to 300 ̊.
   
10. Pulse the whole ½ cup pistachios with the next ¼ cup sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt in the food processor until they begin to clump together.
    
11. Add the oil and process to a smooth paste.
    
12. Spread evenly into the bottom of the tart shell. Get the whole paste to be flat and smooth.
    
13. Put the chocolate into the heatproof bowl.
    
14. Combine the cream and milk in the saucepan until almost – but not quite – boiling. Pour over the chocolate and let stand 2 minutes.
    
15. Whisk until smooth. Let cool 10 minutes.
    
16. Add the egg and stir until combined.
    
17. Pour the bowl mixture over the pistachio paste.
    
18. Bake until just set, 30 – 35 minutes.
    
19. Cool and serve. You can garnish with more finely chopped pistachios if you want – it looks pretty.

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