Chocolate Cream Tart

Chocolate cream pie is one of my favorite desserts. It was the first recipe that I called home for after I got married. I still use my grandmothers recipe with very little change. This week for Tuesdays with Dorie we kick it up a notch. Chocolate cream tart is very much like that old fashioned pie. It calls for a chocolate shortbread crust, chocolate pastry cream, and sweetened whipped cream. The biggest differences in the two are the chocolate crust and and a meringue topping plus the tart takes a little longer to prepare.

After making this tart I still am not sure what I think about it. Did I like the taste? Yes and no. The chocolate pastry cream and the whipped cream are very tasty together. I didn't really care for the chocolate crust. I would also liked to have more whipped cream. Does this take chocolate cream to the next level? Yes definitely. This makes a great looking dessert. Is it worth the extra time to prepare? I'm not really sure. If I make this tart again I would use a regular tart crust and maybe a semisweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet. This weeks recipe was chosen by

Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Please stop by and check out the recipe.

Four-Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is not a dessert that I get excited about. The few times that I have made bread pudding it was just OK. My favorite bread pudding is carmel-ly and is served with a warm bourbon sauce. That being said I wasn't sure how I would like this weeks recipe.

The recipe is simple to make and uses ingredients that you would have on hand. Cubing the bread and chopping the chocolate are the most time consuming part of this recipe. I decided not to use the raisins because I'm not all that fond of them. You then make a simple custard mixture with milk, cream, sugar and lots of eggs. Mix together and then cook in a water bath.

I served it at room temperature with whipped cream. The Verdict: I thought that it was very good. It had just the right amount of chocolate and it wasn't too sweet or eggy. I will definitely make this again. Thanks to Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle for choosing this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe.

Fifteen-Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte

This weeks selection for Tuesdays with Dorie is Fifteen-Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte and it was chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon. This is very simple cake to whip up using only the food processor. It uses ground amaretti cookies and almonds in place of flour. The cake remains moist but it forms a thin flaky layer on top. This isn't a problem because after it cools a yummy chocolate glaze is added. I served this with Dorie's bittersweet chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, and the almond whipped cream. A very small slice of this cake is more than enough to satisfy any chocolate craving and please don't tell me how many calories there are.

Banana Cream Pie

This week at Tuesdays with Dorie we are going bananas, Banana Cream Pie that is. This pie has a flour crust, a pasty cream filling with sliced bananas, and a whipped cream topping. This is not at all like my regular cream pie. It has cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg and the filling is more butterscotch that vanilla. The only problem I had with this pie was that the filling got very thick and needed to be whisked a bit before I could spread it over the crust and bananas.

I have a confession to make about pie crust. I rarely make them. I make lots of cream pies but I am guilty of using a boxed crust. I was hoping that this would change when I got a food processor a few years ago but after using it for making pie crust a few times I went back to my old cheating ways. My crust always seems so ugly and they are usually tough. This crust was easy to make and was tender and tasty. I hope that I will use this recipe again.

I served this pie for lunch on Sunday and everyone liked it. I thought that it tasted better the next day after it had chilled overnight but it was good both ways. While I liked this pie I don't think that it will replace banana pudding or butterscotch pie for me. Thanks to Amy of Sing for Your Supper for choosing this recipe.