When I think of Valentine’s, the first three things that I associate the holidays with are pink-colored things, red-colored things, and chocolate. While let’s be real here, chocolate on Valentine’s Day is just a marketing ploy for candy companies to sell more chocolate, it is still fun to see all of the heart shaped chocolates, and as a self-labeled chocoholic myself, I will use any excuse to eat more chocolate anyways. So I figured, in the “spirit” of Valentine’s, why not make a dessert inspired by a box of chocolates? It would literally have chocolate in every component, and just for the heck of it, I wanted to use a different form of chocolate if possible. And that was where this recipe came about. I wanted to literally cram a variety of chocolates into a single, cohesive dessert. When it came to how I wanted to do it, a tartlet just made more sense. I knew how to flavor tart shells with cocoa powder to give them that chocolate-y feel, I could do at least one kind of chocolate filling, and I figured I could garnish the top with even more chocolate decorations to really round out the entire thing. Admittedly, I wanted to do square-shaped tartlets to better capture the appearance of a box, but alas, I only owned ring-shaped tart molds, so I will save the square shaped tartlets for a future revisiting of this recipe. That being said, these tartlets still came out plenty pretty and to my liking for what resources I had immediately available to me. In terms of the components, we have a cocoa powder-infused tart shell, a cocoa pulp-white chocolate ganache filling, cacao nibs, nama chocolate(Japanese-style chocolate truffles), and tempered ruby chocolate hearts. Like I said, I was really trying to incorporate as many different forms of chocolate as physically possible. So we have chocolate in its less-processed forms(cacao fruit pulp, cocoa nibs, and cocoa powder), then three kinds of chocolate in white chocolate, dark chocolate, and ruby chocolate(which is a pink variation of white chocolate that has a berry-like tanginess to it), and even cocoa butter and chocolate liquor are used in this recipe! All in all, these tartlets are a perfect ode to all of the chocolate-lovers out there, befitting of a Valentine’s Day dessert.

In terms of the recipe itself, and this applies to any recipe that involves a tart shell, patience is key. When working with pate sucre dough, there’s a lot of butter involved here. And the thing about butter is that the more you touch it, the softer it gets, and the softer butter is, the less it holds its structure through the baking process, and you wind up with basically a giant cookie that cannot be filled. How we counteract this is keeping the dough cold at almost all times. The colder the tart shell dough, especially prior to it baking, the less issues you will have with achieving a baked shell that can be properly filled. I usually chill my rolled and shaped tart shells prior to baking them for at least 20 minutes. With the other components, you have essentially two ganaches: one that is used as a filling for the tartlets, and one that is set, cut, and used as the garnish on top for additional height. For the ganache filling, I went with a white chocolate-cacao pulp ganache. I purchased cacao pulp when I was on a trip to Europe and really wanted to try it out in this recipe. Cacao pulp tastes nothing like processed chocolate, but rather, it has a flavor similar to like a pineapple and a peach had a baby. I contrasted that with white chocolate and buttermilk, just so that the ganache filling is this pale white chocolate, but has a creamy, not-too-sweet flavor. I used buttermilk to temper the sweetness in the white chocolate, but I will warn you now that when you heat up buttermilk, it will curdle and split. An immersion blender is your best friend to guarantee that ganache comes together as a smooth, homogenous mixture. For the other ganache, it is a dark chocolate ganache with cream and a little chocolate liquor, since the alcohol in the liquor cuts the richness of the ganache and allows it to set with an almost ice cream-like texture! That ganache is then formed into nama chocolate, or Japanese square shaped truffles, dusted with cocoa powder and used as one of the two garnishes on top, the other being tempered ruby chocolate hearts. For the hearts, I used freeze-dried cocoa butter to help temper these easier. A warning, I did make this recipe using just grams, so apologies in advanced if you do not own a baking scale, but for the lucky people who do own one, I highly recommend trying this recipe out if you love anything chocolate-related. This one literally is made for a chocoholic!

Makes 4 servings:
For the chocolate pate sucre:
90g all-purpose flour
40g granulated sugar
8g cocoa powder
1g salt
90g unsalted butter, kept cold
1 egg yolk
4g vanilla extract

In a food processor, blend together your flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and butter. Once a fine, crumbly dough forms, add your egg yolk and vanilla. Pulse until the dough is just combined. Cover dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm to touch. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut the dough into four 5 inch-thick disks, re-rolling as necessary. Place into lined 4-inch tart tins and weigh with parchment and baking weights. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes.

For the white chocolate-cacao pulp ganache:
40g cacao pulp
2g gelatin powder
75g buttermilk
10g unsalted butter
.5g salt
120g white chocolate
8g cacao nibs

In a pot, heat up cacao juice with gelatin. Once the gelatin is dissolved into the liquid, add to that your buttermilk, butter, and salt. Once the butter is dissolved, use an immersion blender to puree everything until smooth – you can expect the buttermilk to separate from the liquid prior to blending. After blending it, place the liquid to a boil. Place the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the warm liquid over it. Allow that to sit for 1-2 minutes before stirring until combined. Sprinkle into the bottom of each baked tart shell 2g of cacao nibs. Pour the ganache into each tart shell and transfer to the freezer for at least 1 hour.

For the nama chocolate:
55g heavy cream
.5g salt
115g dark chocolate
12g chocolate liquor
8g cocoa powder

In a pot, heat up the heavy cream with salt until it begins to simmer. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the warm heavy cream over it. Allow that to sit for 1-2 minutes before stirring until combined. Stir into the ganache the chocolate liquor. Pour the ganache into silicone rectangle molds and freeze for at least 1 hour. Carefully unmold the nama chocolate and cut it into 1/4-inch cubes, dusting all sides with the cocoa powder. Keep the chocolate in the freezer prior to assembly.

For garnish:
40g ruby chocolate
.5g salt
.5g freeze-dried cocoa butter

In a double boiler, melt down 2/3 of the ruby chocolate with salt. Take the ruby chocolate off heat and stir in the remaining ruby chocolate first. Then once the ruby chocolate is fully melted together, off heat, stir in the cocoa butter until that is dissolved as well. Pour the ruby chocolate onto an acetate sheet and spread in a thin, even layer. Allow the ruby chocolate to set at room temperature for 10 minutes first before cutting out hearts with a cookie cutter. Transfer the ruby chocolate to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before removing.

To assemble:
Start by garnishing the tops of your tartlets with 4 cubes of the nama chocolate, then 3 of the ruby chocolate hearts. Keep the tarts refrigerated if not serving right away.