Chocolate Truffle Tart for Mother’s Day

Chocolate. And lots of it. This is what’s on my mind with Mother’s Day this weekend! (And avocado toast – but that’s for another time.) I tend to prefer plain chocolate, the darker the better, and keep a stash of bars on hand for easy nibbling. Sometimes, though, I want my chocolate in a more elegant form, something pretty and festive.

When I was cooking at Hillel UW, a popular dessert that I often made for the students’ Shabbat dinners was a chocolate mousse pie. This pie was quite simple to make, using melted chocolate and whipped cream for the mousse and crushed Oreos and butter for the crust. Really, what’s not to love? College kids know a good thing!

Given my new love for coconut whipped cream, though, I decided to re-create this pie using it in place of dairy whipped cream. And I love pairing walnuts with chocolate, so I took my tweaks a step further and made a chocolate walnut crust. After grinding walnuts, cocoa powder and coconut sugar together, I stirred in some coconut oil and pressed the mixture into a spring form pan to form the crust. While it baked, I melted chocolate and whipped coconut cream.

I keep a can of coconut milk in the fridge now, so it’s easy to have chilled coconut cream to whip up quickly. By turning the can over and opening the bottom, you pour off the liquid (save it for making smoothies) and then scoop out the coconut cream. After beating it, you can add vanilla or a touch of sweetness and decadently dollop away.

For this tart, I added vanilla and espresso powder to the whipped cream before folding in the melted chocolate. After pouring the filling into the cooled crust, I chilled it to firm up. The last step was showering the finished tart with golden flakes of toasted coconut.

I sighed when I took my first bite. More truffle than mousse in texture, this is an insanely rich, dense, luscious tart, perfect to celebrate Moms everywhere. Wishing all of the Mamas a beautiful Mother’s Day!

Chocolate Truffle Tart
Serves 8-10

2 cups raw walnuts
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
6 ounces dark chocolate, 70-85 % is ideal
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1 tablespoon hot water
1 15 ounce can whole, unsweetened coconut milk, chilled overnight
1 teaspoon vanilla
A pinch of sea salt
3/4 cup shaved coconut, toasted until golden

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse the walnuts, cocoa powder and coconut sugar together until the nuts are ground. Add the melted coconut oil and pulse a couple of times to mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and gently pat on the bottom to form the crust. Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes. The crust will be soft but will harden a bit as it cools. Set aside while you prepare the filling.

Melt the chocolate slowly over low heat, just until it is mostly smooth. Remove from the heat and stir to finish melting. Set aside to cool just a bit. Stir the espresso powder and hot water together in a small bowl.

Remove the coconut milk from the fridge. Turn the can over and open it. Slowly pour the clear liquid out (save for a smoothie!) and scoop the coconut cream out into a bowl. You should have about 1 cup. With an electric beater, whip the cream on high speed for about 3-4 minutes, until it lightens and is creamy. Add the espresso mix, vanilla and a good pinch of sea salt. Whip the cream on high again for a minute, scraping down the sides. Pour the melted chocolate in and gently fold it into the cream. Pour the chocolate mix into the cooled crust and gently spread it evenly.

Put the pan in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours before serving. You can prepare it the night before, too. When ready to serve, run a small knife around the edge and pop open the sides. If the top has cracked a bit, don’t worry – the coconut will hide it! Place the tart on a serving dish, shower the toasted coconut flakes on top and slice. The crust may remain a bit soft, so use a pie server to gently lift out each piece. I like the tart's texture and flavor after sitting out for about 15 minutes, as it softens just a bit and tastes richer.

Lentils and Apples with Acorn Squash: A Fall Staple at Hillel

During the years I was cooking at Hillel for the UW students, I created hundreds of dinners for Shabbat and the holidays. Whenever we served chicken or beef for dinner, we always offered a vegetarian entrée alongside. One of my most requested vegetarian dishes for the fall months was sweet and sour lentils served in a bowl of steamed squash.

Now, I am a bit biased since I adore lentils – red, brown, green ... all of them. But I must say, this is a lovely lentil recipe. The sweet and sour flavor comes from adding honey or maple syrup and red wine vinegar. I include apples for more fall essence, but pears or quince would be nice, too. It’s certainly not a pretty dish – very brown – so you do need a sprig of something green to jazz it up. What it lacks in looks, though, it makes up for in taste.

I usually serve these lentils in acorn squash halves, but I’ve also spooned them over spaghetti squash. It’s tasty warm or room temperature, making it ideal to feed a crowd at a potluck (or some hungry college students!). And did I mention it’s inexpensive, freezes well, is vegan and can be gluten-free if you use tamari in place of the soy sauce? Whew, that’s a lot of virtues for one dish! Let the humble lentil shine!

Lentils and Apples with Acorn Squash
Lentils adapted from New Kosher Cuisine for All Seasons
By Ivy Feurerstadt and Melinda Strauss
Serves 4 as a main dish, or 8 as a side dish (cut into quarters)

1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/8 cup soy sauce or tamari
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
A dash of garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups brown lentils, rinsed
1 apple, cored and diced
2 medium acorn squash, halved and seeds scraped out
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley for serving

In a medium sized saucepan, stir together the first nine ingredients. Add the lentils and mix well. Bring to a boil, cover, turn the heat down and let simmer for about an hour, stirring a few times and tossing the diced apple into the saucepan after the first 20 minutes. Check to see if the lentils are soft and the liquid has thickened. If too liquidy, let simmer uncovered near the end. The lentils should have the consistency of a thick sauce.

While the lentils are cooking, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the 4 squash halves in a roasting dish (cut a small slice off the bottom of each if needed so they sit securely) and add about an inch of water to the pan. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Steam the squash until tender, about 30-45 minutes depending upon how large they are. Remove from oven and set aside until lentils are cooked.

Place the squash halves on a serving platter and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the lentils into each half and top with a sprig of parsley.

If making ahead: Prepare the squash and lentils and keep separate. When close to serving, spoon the lentils into the squash and warm in the oven.

My Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you love chocolate chip cookies? At the UW Hillel Café, chocolate chip cookies became my specialty. A few years ago, they were even referred to as “crack cookies” ... you have no idea how that warms my heart and makes me smile!

Chocolate chip cookies emerged as the most popular baked good in the café. In an effort to mix it up a bit over the years I’ve baked other treats, too, including brownies, oatmeal cookies, raspberry streusel bars, lemon bars, peanut butter cookies and cheesecake bars. While the UW students happily indulged in these goodies, nothing flew out of the pastry case faster than the chocolate chip cookies. I’ve baked tens of thousands of them at this point and I am incredibly happy while baking them. They are my signature cookie. I joke about going in to withdrawal if I haven’t baked for a while, and it’s quite true. I love to bake just about everything, but chocolate chip cookies top my list.

These cookies are quite thick, soft and gooey with chocolate chips. They are based on the classic Nestle Toll House recipe. In order to create the extra thick cookie, I experimented with different baking methods and times until I had the exact process down. Definitely a lot of fun experimenting!

In the Hillel kitchen, there is a professional convection oven and this is where the cookie originated. At home, though, I do not have a convection oven, and I want to be able to make the cookies in a home kitchen. In order to achieve this, I needed to (notice the need part!) bake individual cookies, varying the temperatures and times to recreate the convection experience. I’m happy to report success! I found that by freezing the scoops of cookie dough for at least an hour and baking at a higher temperature, the cookies stayed dense and soft, a chocolaty joy to sink your teeth into. An added benefit is that you can keep a stash of raw cookie balls wrapped in your freezer and pull them out to bake as desired (perfect when Sam and Isaac needed cookies for their high school orchestra potluck last night!).

This is the recipe that is most requested by the students and Hillel program staff and I’m happy to share it here with you.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted slightly from the Nestle Toll House recipe
Makes 21 cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups chocolate chips or chopped semi-sweet chocolate

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and shortening and beat together with a mixer until smooth (you can use a hand mixer or stand mixer). Add the sugar and brown sugar and continue mixing until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly blend the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips until combined.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop 1/4 cup rounded scoops of the dough (I use a small ice cream scoop) on the baking sheet. If baking the same day, pop the tray uncovered in to your freezer for at least an hour until frozen. If baking at a later time, seal the tray well with plastic wrap (air is the enemy when freezing) and store in the freezer until ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a second baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 8-9 scoops of frozen dough on the sheet (if you bake more at a time they tend to spread into flat cookies). Bake for 13 minutes, until golden. They will be very soft. Let cookies sit for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Continue baking the remainder of the cookie dough.

**If you have a convection oven, bake the frozen cookies at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.