TWD - Chocolate Coconut Tart / Deconstructed Pavlova / Freezing Eggs

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie we baked Chocolate Cream Tart. I knew after reading the recipe the first time that I'd be making some adjustments. It's a very rich and chocolate-y recipe-chocolate shortbread crust, bittersweet chocolate filling, basically a dark chocolate pudding, whipped cream and shaved chocolate on top. If you are a chocolate lover, I imagine this is a dream dessert. Since I am not a chocolate lover, I wanted to lessen the chocolate presence. Instead of baking this in a tart pan, I made a basic graham cracker crust and baked in a pie pan. I made the filling using semi-sweet chocolate instead of using bittersweet chocolate, and a little less sugar. Also, I used Dorie's recipe and made a small amount of coconut filling, which I mixed with the chocolate filling. For the topping, I used non-dairy whipped topping and toasted coconut-just to lighten things up even more. The pie came out beautifully, and I am saving it for a potluck type thing we are going to. I did taste the filling and it is really good-lots of coconut.


Here is the recipe I used for the coconut filling:
Put 1 1/3 cups of heavy cream and 1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cram is reduced by almost half, and is slightly thickened. Cool before using.


With the extra egg whites, I made a deconstructed pavlova. A pavlova is a meringue shell, usually topped with whipped cream and fruit.

This is a pavlova I made earlier-just to give you an idea of what it looks like before being deconstructed. This time, I cooked the whole meringue base, but instead of using it all, I broke it up into pieces so that I could freeze some and have it later. Frankly, we are on dessert overload. I even froze 90% of the amazing chestnut cheesecake for later. So, for my deconstructed version of pavlova, I used some of the merinque, whipped cream (or whipped topping), and blackberries. It was yummy, and very light.

Here's a nice pavlova recipe from allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS
4 egg whites
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pint heavy cream
6 kiwi, peeled and sliced

DIRECTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until thick and glossy. Overbeaten egg whites lose volume and deflate when folded into other ingredients. Be absolutely sure not a particle of grease or egg yolk gets into the whites. Gently fold in vanilla extract, lemon juice and cornstarch.
Spoon mixture inside the circle drawn on the parchment paper. Working from the center, spread mixture toward the outside edge, building edge slightly. This should leave a slight depression in the center.
Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack.
Remove the paper, and place meringue on a flat serving plate. Fill the center of the meringue with whipped cream, sweetened if desired. Top whipped cream with kiwifruit slices.

Freezing Eggs:

It seems that lately I've been making a bunch of recipes that call for egg yolks only. To avoid wasting the extra egg whites, I freeze them. I put them in ice cube trays and then take out and defrost just what I need when I need egg whites in a recipe.

Here is an article on freezing eggs, both whites and yolks, from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/eggs.html

For the recipe for the chocolate tart, please visit Scrumptious Photography. Kim is a very talented photographer, so check-out some of her photos.
http://www.scrumptiousphotography.com/2009/04/chocolate-cream-tart-tuesdays-with.html


Here's hoping that the future holds lots of fresh fruit and veggie recipes! I need a produce fix.