Let me say, in her defense, it wasn't quite a straight forward fail, it tasted great, but it just wasn't worth the time and energy spent making this dessert. I could have easily slapped a piece of chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers together, nuked them up, and thrown them in a bowl with some vanilla ice cream and I would have gotten a similar result. As you will soon see, my final product did not resemble a tart of any kind, more of a heaping mess of chocolate, marshmallow and sugar (which really, if you're going to have a mess, it might as well be of the tasty sort). Also, a majority of it ended up on my floor, which led to me continuously cleaning from the mess the flipping unstable graham cracker crust created. Here is the recipe, so that maybe we can figure out what went wrong:
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Hers. Now doesn't that just look delightful!? Photo from http://www.laurenslatest.com/ |
yield: 4 tarts, 4-6 servings
(*I actually made it in one 10 in tart pan, which I asked the author about, and she said it was just fine to make it that way. Really it should make no difference, just wanted to point out that change).
Ingredients:
for the crust-
1 sleeve graham crackers, finely ground
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
for the filling-
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups mini marshmallows
Directions:
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients for the crust until completely moistened. Divide evenly between 4 individual tart pans and press in. Place into the freezer while you make the filling.
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| Crust mixture. |
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| Crust pre freezer. Didn't look sturdy enough even here, but I thought the freezer work work some magic. It didn't. |
For the filling, stir sugar and salt into cream in the top of a double boiler. {A heat-proof bowl over lightly simmering water works just fine!} (*No it really doesn't)
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| My super fab, homemade double broiler. |
Stir occasionally to heat cream thoroughly and dissolve sugar, about 7 minutes or so. (*And by or so, in my case, it was some insane numerical amount like 15-20 minutes).
Temper egg yolks with hot cream and mix. Pour that mixture into the double boiler and stir frequently for 10-12 minutes so the mixture can thicken. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Stir until chocolate has melted and filling is a smooth and uniform consistency. Pour into tart shells evenly and sit out at room temperature. {Because the shells were in the freezer, this should take 30 minutes or so.} Place plastic wrap directly onto the filling of the tarts and refrigerate at least 2 hours or until the filling has set. {You should be able to remove the plastic wrap cleanly–with no filling on it.} Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
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| Right before going in the fridge. At this point I knew I was doomed to fail. |
When ready to serve, remove tarts from fridge. Top with 1/2 cup mini marshmallows each and torch the top to toast. {Or stick them under a hot broiler for a few seconds.} Serve immediately.
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| Torching by candle light. haha |
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| The last time this dessert would remain in tart form. 30 seconds later the first cut caused it to crumble. |
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| After its makeover. More of a ice cream tart mush. |
Pros: As I said before, it really is a tasty little treat. The flavors are all there, it just didn't stay in tart form as promised.
Cons: I am going to break this up into three points: the dessert itself, the recipe, and the tools required.
The Dessert Itself: The crust did not stick together at ALL. It was a crumbly hot mess. Also, as I said before, while it was delicious, so is anything including chocolate, sugar, and marshmallow with a side of vanilla ice cream. I just could have done it in 30 seconds and saved my floor from continuous scrubbing.
The Recipe: I am the kind of person that needs to be spoken to like a toddler when following a recipe. How heated do you want the cream and sugar mixture? Like burn my finger hot or this would make a nice bath hot? How slow should I pour the mixture onto the eggs? What the heck does temper mean?! And how tempered would you like these eggs? I don't want to Wikipedia while trying to follow a recipe. I think it's best to assume when posting a recipe that a majority of your readers were not in the "Gifted and Talented" program and therefore could use a very thorough breakdown of the recipe, even if it seems obvious to the writer. Remember, we can't all be Martha Stewart. Some of us aren't even close.
The Tools Needed: I do not have a double broiler and I have done recipes before where I have made my own jenky broiler and in other cases it has worked out just fine, not so much in this case. I don't think the breakdown of minutes or how hot you are supposed to get the broiler worked if you were making your own with a sauce pan and a heat proof bowl. I had to continually turn the heat up and down to try and mimic what she was able to do with a real broiler. It just didn't work and took twice the time.
While I love "Lauren's Latest", this was a definite Hall of Shame recipe for me. The taste was there, but if it takes twice the time to make and doesn't even end up resembling the recipe it was based on, than it's not worth it in my book. If I am going to spend time and energy on a recipe, I want it to be spectacular; I want the end to justify the means. This just didn't do it for me.
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