songo industries: Milk Chocolate and Pistachio Tart

The previous tenants never had their mail forwarded, so I receive all their magazines. Some are bad (hunting/game and fishing magazines, Parenting, and Woman's Day), some are good (New Yorker and Martha Stewart's Living).

This summer, says Martha Stewart, is all about tarts. The one that caught my (stomach's) attention was the milk chocolate pistachio tart. I like milk, chocolate, pistachio, and tarts, so why not put them all together?

Ingredients and equipment:

Crust
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup unsalted shelled pistachios, chopped
salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pistachio paste
1/2 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
1/4 cup sugar
salt
1 teaspoon grapeseed oil (or any other neutral oil)

Filling
5 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, beaten

Garnish: finely chopped pistachios

9-inch fluted round tart pan with a removable bottom, rolling pin, baking sheet

First things first. Leave the stick of butter and the egg out on the counter and bring to room temperature before attempting a go at this. If you try to cream cold butter, you're either nuts or crazy.

They tell you to coat the tart pan with cooking spray. I don't own any cooking sprays, so I skipped this step. In the end, I had no trouble with the tart sticking to the pan, but mine was non-stick.

In a bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, chopped pistachios (you'll have left over chopped pistachios, which you can use for garnish), and 1/4 teaspoon salt with a whisk or fork.

Stir stir stir

In another bowl "beat butter on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes." Do I look like I own a hand held mixer? No. I creamed the butter in a big bowl with a wooden spoon. It worked out fine. And it's good exercise. Add the sugar and stir (or beat) until pale.

Add the vanila and incorporate into the creamed butter. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined and the dough holds together.

Press the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it, and roll it out to 1/4-inch thickness on a well floured surface.

You know how to transfer rolled out dough from the counter into the pan, don't you? Roll it up with your rolling pin and then unroll it on top of the pan. Press dough into bottom and up the sides of tart pan. If it tears a little, just patch it up with your fingers. No one's going to see the patch jobs under the filling. Trim excess dough flush with edges of pan by rolling your rolling pin over the top. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. I threw the scrap pieces in the toaster oven for a few minutes. It was pretty good.

Near the end of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. I poked holes in the crust with a fork, just in case. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Let it cool completely and reduce the temperature to 300 degrees.

While the crust is baking, make the pistachio paste and the chocolate filling.

Pulse pistachios, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a food processor or blender until mixture begins to clump together. Add oil, and pulse until smooth and pastelike.

It looked more like wet sand than paste.

Chop up the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl. I used Scharffen Berger milk chocolate (41% cacao).

Heat cream and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling; pour over chocolate. Let stand for 2 minutes.

Slowly whisk until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes. Stir in a beaten egg until combined.

Once the crust has cooled down completely, spread the pistachio paste into the bottom, pressing firmly with the bottom of a measuring cup until flat and smooth.

Empty shell