Mother’s Day & Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Mousse Tart with Hazelnuts

For Mother’s Day I wanted to make the dessert you, my foodie friends, voted for: Martha Stewart’s Mousse Tart with Hazelnuts. This recipe is in her new cookbook Martha Stewart’s New Pies and Tarts published by Random House Canada and just looked so good, I could not wait to make it! In fact, I kind of started a few days early.

On Friday I made the crust. In a food processor I combined 3 ounces of butter cookies (you are supposed to use graham crackers but I did not have any) with 1/2 cup of skinned hazelnuts (see how to skin them here), 1/4 tsp coarse salt and 2 tbsp sugar.

Once all of those ingredients turned into crumbs I poured in 4 tbsp of melted unsalted butter.

I had to share this trick with you since it was Martha who taught it to me. To prevent the blade from falling out when you go to pour the crust into your 9″ tart or springform pan, you can hold it into place with one of your fingers through the center of the bowl! Cool eh?

I wish I had a tart pan so the dessert would end up looking just like Martha’s but the springform pan worked fine. Bake in a 350F oven for 12-14 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. I got this far on Friday and then was too exhausted to finish it.

Sunday, before we were leaving to go see Lorraine, I finally had time and energy to make the filling. Heat 3/4 cup of heavy cream to a simmer and add 5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped. Let sit five minutes, whisk together and then let cool to room temperature.

Whip 1 cup of whipping cream with 2 tbsp of icing sugar until it forms soft peaks.

Add in the chocolate mixture. I also added 1/2 tsp of Frangelico to boost the hazelnut flavour. So good! Pour into the crust and then… “refrigerate until completely set, 2 hours…” Oh crap! We had to leave ASAP!

I threw the tart into the deep freeze and took a shower. I covered it with plastic wrap and we dropped it off at Lorraine’s and put it in the fridge and took her out to lunch.

We wanted to take Lorraine to Cora’s like we did last year but because we were running late, it was way too busy. We had a beautiful lunch at Smitty’s instead.

We went back to Lorraine’s, put on the kettle and had a nice big piece of the mousse tart. It was delightful! Light, airy, chocolaty with a hint of hazelnut… this was a special treat. Perfect for Mother’s Day.

The candied hazelnuts were a stunning garnish, worth the effort. This recipe is a bit time consuming but for a special occasion like Mother’s Day, it will definitely impress. I love the combination of chocolate and hazelnuts so this was a big winner for me and a slam dunk of a dessert. I give this recipe four and a half out of five wooden spoons. 

You did such a good job voting a winner recipe for me, make sure to vote for my next treat from Martha’s cookbook via my poll:

Thin Pear Tart
Lattice-Top Blueberry Pie (sorry, no link)
Vegetable Tartlets

Hope all the moms out there had a beautiful Mother’s Day this year!