Chocolate Strawberry Tarts

These days, I’ve veered away from marshmallows and box-mix brownies. In a household of two, the idea of baking is a little overwhelming. Two dozen cookies fresh out the oven every afternoon would be a blessing and a curse…but mostly a curse. I’m much more focused on making meals that we can enjoy everyday and finish without the burden of a food baby.

So it shocks me when I read food blogs just how high the ratio of dessert to savory recipes can often be. I love dessert, but no one could possibly eat sweets that often! If you are, in fact, alternating meals between peanut butter fudge brownies and normal savory food, I applaud and envy you. My suspicion, though, is that this is not the case.

That being said, it’s been too long since I’ve shared a dessert recipe. I tend to favor easy desserts like chocolate bars…things that don’t make for very interesting recipes. I wanted something, though, that was still easy to prepare, but also small, for maximum cuteness and minimum guilt. These tarts fit the bill.

I was once obsessed with fruit tarts at Whole Foods, and these are a healthier riff. The Whole Foods originals have some sort of cream filling, with assorted fruits on top. These are made less sinful with a date crust and tofu filling. They’re somewhat reminiscent of cream pies, and in fact, would work with a number of different fruits – bananas would be fabulous.

Chocolate Strawberry Tarts

I made these with both chocolate and strawberry flavored fillings. The chocolate was amazing and rich. The strawberries naturally contain some liquid, so that filling was more viscous and had less body than the chocolate counterpart. It would be interesting to try dried fruit instead of fresh, which I imagine could yield a more flavorful, better textured results.

I splurged on fancy chocolate chips and dutch processed cocoa powder. I really feel like the filling was enhanced by these ingredients, I would recommend using the nicest chocolate possible.

I made two mini tarts (about 5″ diameter each), but this could also make one larger tart).

1/4 cup flax seeds
4 tablespoons water
5 dates, pitted
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
12 oz silken tofu
1 cup strawberries
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, grind the flax seeds to a powder. Add the oats, and grind until also a powder. Add the water, dates, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until incorporated. At this point, the mixture will be sticky.

Press the mixture evenly into your tart dishes and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, just to toast.

Slice two of the strawberries and set aside.

In the food processor, add half the tofu, the remaining strawberries, 1 tablespoon maple syrup and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and pulse until fully incorporated. Set aside this mixture.

In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips over medium heat, stirring the entire time (this will take only a minute or two). The tarts should be out of the oven right now, so you can coat on with a layer of melted chocolate. In the second tart, place the strawberry slices in even layers.

The rest of the melted chocolate, put in the food processor (no need to clean from the strawberries, the chocolate color of flavor will dominate whatever bits of strawberry remain). Add the remaining tofu, maple syrup, vanilla extract and cocoa powder to the food processor and pulse until fully incorporated.

Place the strawberry filling in the chocolate covered tart and the chocolate filling in the strawberry covered tart. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to allow the fillings to firm and serve.