Recipe Source: Jaques Pepin ex Gourmet Magazine (or maybe it was Bon Appetit!)
Ingredients:
Pastry:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 lb chilled butter; cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice water
Filling:
3 oz butter; cut up
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup light Karo
8 large egg yolks; freeze whites for other uses
Directions:
Pastry:
Place flour and sugar in work bowl of processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse briefly to mix. Add 1/4 lb butter in pieces and process until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk and water and process only until mixture forms a ball. Wrap airtight and refrigerate for at least one hour, or as long as a few days, or freeze for as long as three months.
Filling:
Prepare filling while pastry is chilling since filling must cool to room temperature before use, and must not be refrigerated or it will become too firm. It may wait at room temperature for several hours if necessary.
Place 3 oz butter and chocolate chips in top of double boiler over hot water on moderate heat; cover for a few minutes until almost melted, then stir until smooth. Stir in Karo. Stir (do not beat!) 8 yolks in a bowl just to mix; gradually add about 1/3 cup of chocolate mixture to yolks, combining fairly well. Stir the egg yolk mixture gradually into the remaining chocolate mixture, combining very well. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, for five minutes.
Remove top of double boiler from hot water. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until cooled to room temperature.
Shells:
Flour a pastry board or cloth and rolling pin. Work with half the dough at a time, reserving other half in refrigerator. Flatten dough slightly and turn to flour all sides. Roll the dough very thin – about 1/16th inch. Cut into rounds with 2 inch plain-edged cutter. Ease rounds into mini-tartlet pans. Repeat with remaining dough, rerolling scraps only once. Place the filled pans on a cookie sheet and freeze until dough is firm, at least one hour, or overnight (or up to three months).
Remove pans from freezer, place square of foil into each shell, and fill with dry beans or other blind-baking aids. Bake in preheated 400° oven about 12 minutes, reversing pans back to front halfway through baking to ensure even browning. Check at 10 minutes – pastry should bake until really golden. Remove from oven, remove beans and foil, reserving beans to reuse for this purpose only, and cool tart shells in pans.
Fill and finish:
When shells are cool, place a well-rounded teaspoon of filling into each (do not spread – filling will run and level during baking). Bake in preheated 300° oven for 12 minutes, reversing pans back to front halfway through baking. Tops will feel dry to touch but filling will still be soft. Do not overbake!
Yield: appx. 36
