S.T.E.L.: S.T: World Nutella Day Feb 5

World Nutella Day is Feb 5, and in sunny SG, I'm late by a day but some people out there in this world on the other side of the are still celebrating it!

Bascially, World Nutella Day is this crazy idea started by two Nutella obsessed girls and the world is better for it! You can read more here: http://www.nutelladay.com/participate/

To be honest, I've been sick today and hence, finally have the time to blog. In honour of this tremendous occasion, I would like to share with you my very own take on Pierre Hermes' Nutella Tart. Created for his wife who loves this confection to no end, this tart is simply divine. I posted about this sometime back but never really gave the recipe.

For my version, I used my very own hazelnut shortcrust recipe modified from my mom's shortcrust and used extremely dark chocolate for the base. I also took liberties and decorated with white ganache.

Its absolutely delicious, its soft and creamy inside, almost like a lava cake and the pastry just melts in your mouth.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1/2cup of butter
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/4 cup of self raising flour or ground hazelnuts
(With self-raising flour, you get a puffier crust, ground hazelnuts give a slightly heavier but more flavourful crust )

For the filling:

2/3 cup Nutella

4 3/4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

7 tablespoons, 3 1/2 ounces, unsalted butter

1 large egg at room temperature, stirred with a fork

3 large egg yolks at room temperature, stirred with a fork

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup hazelnuts toasted, skinned and cut into large pieces (I omitted this and made white chocolate ganache)

For the topping

1/4 cup of cream

1/4 cup of white chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

For the crust:

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and icing sugar. Stir in sifted flour, ground hazelnuts and beat until mixture comes together to form a dough that will be slightly sticky.

2. Spread the dough into the pan and poke holes in it using a fork.

3. Place a baking sheet over the pie shell and fill with baking beads. You can use green/red/soya beans as well.

4.Place in the oven and bake the crust for 20 minutes. Once done, set aside to cool to room temperature.

P.S This method is called blind baking and for this recipe, you don't want to over bake the crust as it gets baked again with the filling.

For the filling:

1.Spread the Nutella evenly over the bottom of the cooled crust and set aside.

2.Melt the chocolate and butter in separate bowls over simmering water or in the microwave. Allow them to cool until they just feel warm to the touch.

3.Use a small whisk to stir the egg into the chocolate, gently and taking care not to agitate the mixture. You don’t want to beat air into the ganache. Stir in the egg yolks a little at a time, followed by the sugar. Stir in the warm butter. Pour the ganache over the Nutella in the tart shell. At this point, if you opted for putting nuts at the top, scatter the nuts now.

4. Bake the tart for 11 minutes. The center of the tart will still be a little jiggly and the top will be dull, like a cake. Remove the tart from the oven and slide onto a rack. Allow the tart to cool for at least 20 minutes or until it reaches room temperature. Please note that baking time varies, on your oven, the depth of your pie tin and size of your pie tin.

For the topping:

1. Place the cream and white chocolate in a metal bowl.

2. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, careful to not let the water touch the bottom.

3. Gently stir the chocolate and cream mixture till smooth and melted.

4. Drizzle over the top of the Nutella tart.

For the original recipe, click here.

I hope you enjoy this and do let me know if you have any queries! This is best eaten on the day, at room temperature. Left overs( which almost never happen) can be placed in the fridge and warmed up the next day!