Tuesday: Chocolate Butter Tarts

I used to hate butter tarts. I loved making them, because there is nothing easier, but would.not.eat.them. Too sweet, too whatever. Then I added chocolate. And then a chocolate tart shell. I have to send these into work with my husband tomorrow, or I am going to eat ALL of them.

You will need:

3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 c butter, softened
2 Tbsp cocoa, unsweetened
1/2 Tbsp icing sugar
1c all purpose flour
1/2 c dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 c corn syrup
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 c chocolate chips

First, prep! Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, get out a stand mixer (pink optional), spray a mini-muffin tin and weigh your cream cheese. It's not a full brick, that's 8 oz. You want a little less than half. Also, quick tip for softening cream cheese, you can microwave this much for 8 seconds and it will work.

Cream the 1/2 c cup butter and cream cheese together until creamy, add in cocoa and icing sugar and beat until well blended. Add in the flour slowly and carefully, then scoop up what sprayed all over the counter when you forgot to turn it down. I'll wait.

The dough should form into one cohesive ball; remove and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 1/h hour. Hey, you could toast some oats for tomorrow while you are waiting! Spread some rolled oats onto a cookie sheet, bake for 20 minutes, stirring halfway. All set!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, prepare the filling. Mix the sugar, corn syrup, egg, vanilla and 2 Tbsp butter in a medium bowl. Stir it again. Check the clock. Time!

Cut the dough into 24 pieces, I like to cut it up like a Terry's orange, in four, then 8, then so and so forth.

Roll each piece into a ball, place in the muffin tin and using your fingers, push it up the sides into the shape of a tart shell.

Place the chocolate chips in the bottom of each tart shell; use the smallest ones you have.

Spoon about half a tablespoon of the butter / sugar mixture into each shell, until about 2/3 full.

Bake for 15 minutes, until the filling is bubbling and the pastry is puffy.

Let them sit for a minute before trying to remove, then use a skinny spatula or very thin knife (totally will probably not work super well) to pry them up gently. There's approximately eleventy thousand calories in each, give or take, so we'll just call our treat!

Enjoy!