TWD—Soft Chocolate Pistachio Tart and Sam’s Third Birthday!

Howdy Ya’ll!  It’s the birthday boy!

We’re in Utah right now.  We got to see “our” house today.  (I say “our” in quotes, because technically, we haven’t completed the purchase yet, but I’ll let ya’ll know more soon!)  The home we are buying is in Eagle Mountain.  We LOVE it.  We drove out with the boys over the weekend and will be here during spring break.  It’s great to be back “home” in Utah. 

I knew we’d be out of town this week, so I made the tart(s) early last week before we left. I halved the tart dough and divided it between two 4 inch mini tart pans and had a little leftover, so I made a yummy shortbread cookie.  I used ground pistachios in the dough.  I was trying to “go green” for St. Patrick’s Day.  Great flavored dough!  I would make the sweet tart dough with pistachios again just to make shortbread cookies.  And I’d definitely do this again----

Dipped in melted bittersweet chocolate, it was delicious.

Since this was supposed to be soft chocolate pudding-like, I decided to make the full recipe for the chocolate and just put some in a pan without the crust.  I was thinking it would have been scoopable like pudding and I’d make little parfaits out of it.

I baked off the two tarts and forgot to photograph the rest of the chocolate I put in a bread pan.

 

They looked nice and pudding-y before they baked.

But I thought they were almost brownie-like after they baked.  It was not the consistency I really wanted.  Is this how it’s supposed to be?  Oh, by the way, I didn’t use raspberries because they are outrageously priced right now and although I really like the fruity-chocolate combo, Kevin really doesn’t.  I don’t know why I worry so much about that sometimes, as I’m pretty sure he didn’t even taste this.  He was gone the evening I made them.  The boys had some and liked it.  Not sure they would have really liked the raspberries with the chocolate.  But the pistachios were really good, so besides in the dough, I sprinkled some on top.

Then to stick with my green thinking, I decided to tint some whipped topping with some green food coloring (too lazy to whip my own again this time).  It’s a very pale green, but festive anyway.

I think Scott ate half a tart and wanted more, but I wouldn’t let him.

Parker ate a little.  Taylor took a bite and didn’t want any.  I think Sam ate a cookie instead.  Overall, I thought it tasted okay.  I probably wouldn’t make it again, I like (love) a chocolate ganache tart more.  Like that one we made with the caramel---Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart from TWD a few months ago.

So here’s what I did with the bread pan full of the “soft chocolate”--

I made a S’mores Rocky Road “Parfait”.  It was pretty good.  Then I put the rest of the chocolate and half a tart in the fridge and we got busy doing lots of things and I threw it out before we headed for Utah after it sat for 3-4 days.  I know, crazy me.  We just got to getting ready for our road trip and it kinda got put by the wayside in the fridge. 

So to wrap it up, thanks, Rachelle from Mommy?  I'm Hungry! because I do like to try all these different recipes and have fun with them and it WAS chocolate, so that worked for me! ;)  You can get the recipe on Rachelle’s blog.  Hey, check out all the other TWD blogger's tarts, too. 

It’s Sammie’s birthday!  I can’t believe he’s three.  He was just sitting on the couch earlier singing so cute out of nowhere, “Jingle bells, jingle all the way, how I wonder what you are.”  And he’s been walking around singing, “Hap Birtday, Hap Birtday.”  So darn cute.  I’ll post more about his birthday soon.  Here’s a quick preview of more to come as my parents are here in Utah and brought him a little gift.

 

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  Grandma knew that one of Sam’s favorite books is Dinosaurs Love Underpants, so they gave him some dinosaurs.  He loves them.

We are staying at Aunt Cindy’s while we’re here in Utah and I was sitting out on the front porch with Sam.  He picked up a little push broom and said, “This is a wittle broom for wittle people like me.”  Taylor came outside a few minutes later and wanted to use the broom, Sam looked at him with extreme seriousness and said, “Are you wittle enough to use this wittle broom?”  DADGUM CUTE!  You know I usually write up these posts on Monday night, so Sam’s birthday is really tomorrow (or today, Tuesday, however you want to look at it).  So tomorrow/today/Tuesday we’re going to the SLC Hogle Zoo.  Sam is quite excited.  He wuvs the zoo!  So am I, it’s supposed to be in the 60’s.  The day we got here on Saturday it was literally blizzard with 50 mph winds!  It blew right out of here on Sunday and today/Monday has been beautiful in the 50’s.  Spring is sprunging!