Chocolate Tarts with Strawberry Santa Hats!

Last Strawberry Santa Hats post - I promise! Are you sick of them yet? This is going to be the last one, mainly because strawberries are finally getting a little too unpalatable. I only managed to rescue six nice looking strawberries out of a whole pound, but that's OK, because the rest of them became a delicious batch of strawberry and chocolate chip ice cream. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the final Santa Hats!



These Strawberry Santa Hats are sitting pretty on top of tiny little ganache-filled chocolate tartlets. The crust is a shortbread-like crust, which should be fairly thick for sturdiness. You wouldn't want your mother in law to bite into a thin, flimsy tart and end up with a big chocolate and strawberry mess all over her fancy party dress, would you? You'd never hear the end of it!

I used two-inch mini tartlet tins like these, but you could probably make them in a regular sized muffin tin too. You would only get maybe eight or nine out of one batch instead of twelve. I just love how tiny these are, and they only cost me around sixty cents each at Bed Bath & Beyond!

Chocolate Tarts with Strawberry Santa Hats (Makes 12 Mini Tarts) 1/2 cupEarth Balance or other vegan butter 1/2 cup turbinado sugar 1 1/2 tbspwater 1/4 tspalmond extract 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 cupwhole wheat pastry flour 2/3 cup (4 oz/110g)semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/3 cupcoconut milk (full fat) 12strawberries 1 cancoconut milk, full fat, refrigerated overnight 1 tsp vanilla extract sweetener of choice,to taste Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and spray 12 individual mini tartlet tins with cooking spray. Using an electric mixer, cream the Earth Balance and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the water and almond extract and keep mixing for a little longer. Sift in the cocoa powder and flour and mix with a large spoon until well combined. If the dough is too dry, add a tiny bit of water. If it's too soggy add a little more flour. Smooth it a bit by kneading it with your hands (messy!) right inside the bowl. It should be a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and press each piece into a mini tartlet pan, all around the sides and the bottom. You want a fairly thick crust so the finished tartlets won't collapse if someone wants to eat them with their hands. Use a fork to poke the bottom and sides of the dough too keep it from bubbling up, and bake for 14 minutes. Let them cool down before you attempt to remove them from the tins. Now would be a good time to start your ganache! Bring the coconut milk to a boil, remove from heat and dump the chocolate chips in there. Complicated, I know! Stir vigorously until completely smooth. You can add a bit more hot coconut milk if your chocolate doesn't look soft enough. Carefully remove the crusts from the tins and fill them with the chocolate ganache. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Wash, stem and dry the strawberries. They should be extremely dry or the red juice will run all over the whipped cream. If you want to fill them with something tasty like chocolate-hazelnut spread (as shown here) or coconut whipped cream, this would be the time to do that. Remove the can of coconut milk from the fridge and scoop out the coconut cream into a mixing bowl, leaving behind the coconut water.  Using a powerful hand mixer, whip the coconut cream until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and sweetener and keep beating for a couple of minutes. My sweetener of choice is maple syrup, and two or three tablespoons is all I need. Keep the cream in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Check out this post for a handy video that shows how to make coconut whipped cream from scratch. When the tarts are completely chilled, scoop the coconut whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a star decorating tip. Starting from the center, use your pastry bag to cover the tops of the tarts with coconut cream in a circular, spiraling motion. Place a strawberry on top of each cream-covered tart, and pipe a little pom-pom on the tip of each strawberry. See more detailed instructions here, and also check out this post to see four different ways to decorate your Santa Hats, depending on how soft or firm your cream is. That's it! You're done!

As customary, here is a little peek inside:


Gooey!


My strawberries were flled with coconut whipped cream.

That's it! The Strawberry Santa Hats have made their final appearance on Wing It. Will you be making any Strawberry Santa Hats this season? Good luck finding pretty berries that don't taste like solid water! :)