Mint Chocolate Tart

Now I know that typically when you think mint chocolate, you think of the holidays. But I assure you that this was not made to tease you for all the amazing holiday desserts to come, but instead it was the answer to a little game me and my sister are playing. My sister Melissa, is an amazing cook and baker and actually most of the things that I know how to do are from her and my mom teaching me in the kitchen. She has her own blog that is amazing for some healthy delicious meals; but last week she decided to challenge me with a mystery game. She chose three ingredients and I had to come up with a dessert to make. And I didn't have much time to think about what to make. She gave me chocolate, buttermilk, and fresh mint. After hours searching and thinking I finally narrowed it down to two options. A chocolate mint tart, or chocolate scones with a mint glaze. Now I knew I would have to make this for my family since I didn't want left over sweets in my house, so I took the opportunity to bake for them yesterday, when we went and stayed over there to visit. My family is a very healthy family. We may look like we love our sweets, and don't get me wrong we do, but we try and keep our sweets to a minimum. So I knew that no one was going to go for chocolate scones, for breakfast. That is just not when we eat our sweets. So I opted for the mint chocolate tart that could be eaten after dinner, as dessert. 

I was a little nervous working with fresh mint. I have only worked with mint extract and was not sure how fresh mint was going to taste in a chocolate dessert. I combined two recipes that I found, and tweaked them to fit my style of baking. Needless to say, this dessert was a hit. The buttermilk tart is not sweet so it balances out the semi-sweet chocolate that I used. This tart is very rich so we had to eat it with vanilla ice cream to balance out the rich chocolate flavor. I must admit, it was weird eating this in the dead of summer but rest assured, I will be making it again for the holidays. 

This week we got blessed with our second nephew, Adlai Lee Farmer. It absolutely killed me to be away from my first nephew, Emory, for more then a week at a time, and now with a second nephew 45 minutes away, it is a daily battle not to drive myself and my husband up there every day after work! Our first little nephew is now two, and he is a little rascal. He is always running, talking, and dancing and I love every little piece of him! I cannot wait to see how Addy is compared to Emory and to see our two little nephews grow! And in my proud moment, Emory couldn't get enough of Aunty BB's tart! 

Another exiting thing happened this week. My husband joined the blogging world =) I can now admit that I have no idea how to work our Canon camera, so when we got married I let him take the reins, and somewhere in there he found a new hobby : photography! He is getting better with every photo and I couldn't be more proud (and extremely happy that I do not have to worry about the pictures anymore!) As much as he loves taking pictures of the desserts I make, he is more interested in photographing the beautiful  world we live in, so I cannot wait to see where this blog leads him! Check it our here. 

Mint Chocolate Tart

yields one 13 3/4 by 4 1/2 rectangle tart pan

for the buttermilk tart crust:

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/3 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar. Drop butter pieces into bowl. Using your fingers, fork, or pastry cutter, work butter into flour mixture until it resembles corn meal with some pea size pieces of butter in it. 

Pour buttermilk over mixture and stir until it comes together. If too try, add 1 tablespoon of water. Turn mixture onto well floured surface and kneed once or twice. 

Place dough in pan, and using knuckles and fingers, push up sides and bottom of pan. You want it to be pretty thin since it does rise in the oven. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes. 

for the filling:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

5-6 sprigs fresh mint (about 20 leaves)

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons butter

confectioners sugar for decoration

Place the finely chopped chocolate in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the cream and mint over medium heat until the cream starts to boil for 1 minute. Strain the cream through a fine mesh strainer into the chocolate to remove the mint. Let sit for one minute, then add butter. Gently stir the cream and chocolate until combined. Pour the filling into prepared tart shell. Chill at least an hour. 

When ready, garnish with confectioners sugar.