I will refrain from burying the lede (a nod to my friends with whom I worked in publishing) – this tart is super tasty. I want to make sure you hear that before I tell you what it is free of – gluten, wheat, dairy and eggs. That also means it is vegan. Please trust me when I say that it is really good. 

We served the first half of it to our friends, Maury and Alice G. They traveled a few hours to see us and the renovations we did to our house last year. We all liked the roasted hazelnut and chocolate flavor combination coupled with the almond-hazelnut crust. The crust was very cookie-like. When reviewing the ingredients, we determined that this would be a great dessert for Passover.

Don’t be scared off by the coconut oil. I used refined coconut oil as it has a more neutral taste than unrefined coconut oil. I love the taste of coconut, especially with chocolate, but I knew that some in my audience were not as fond of coconut as I am. In the future I’d like to try it with unrefined coconut oil. Either will work fine for this recipe.

Make sure to use good quality chocolate for this recipe. While I used dark chocolate chips (Guittard Baking Chips, Extra Dark Chocolate, 63% Cacao), you could also use semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you want to ensure that your tart is gluten-free, read the ingredients on the chocolate chips. Cocoa butter is fine (there’s no dairy) but there might be milk (as in from a cow) in some chips (especially the less bittersweet they are).

This recipe may seem too long but it’s really pretty easy. The crust is very forgiving. The only baking (other than roasting the hazelnuts) is the crust. The filling is heated in a microwave.

This tart kept well as it was equally good the next night when we served it to my parents. I can’t tell you if it lasts more than two days as there was nothing left after the second serving. If you want to call this a Chocolate-Filbert Tart, Ed would be fine with that.  Filbert is a more common name for in Europe (for both the tree and the nut) for what we refer to as a hazelnut stateside.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart (Gluten-Free)

 
Chocolate-Hazelnut Tart (Gluten-Free)
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Recipe type: Dessert
Author:
Serves: 8 to 10
Ingredients
Crust
  • ½ cup raw hazelnuts
  • 2 cups almond flour, packed (also called almond meal)
  • 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar (see Notes)
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup at room temperature
  • 6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted (see Notes)
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling
  • 9 ounces (about 1-1/2 cups) dark chocolate chips (see Notes)
  • ⅓ cup and 1 tablespoon canned full-fat coconut milk (if milk has separated, stir until combined)
  • ½ cup raw hazelnuts
  • ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)
Instructions
Make Crust:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch tart pan with coconut oil or canola oil spray . Set aside.
  2. Spread all the hazelnuts for both the crust and topping (1 cup total) in an even layer on a baking sheet. Toast at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes, careful not to burn. Let cool for a few minutes then transfer hazelnuts to a kitchen towel. Using the kitchen towel, rub off most of the skins. (I often use my toaster oven for toasting nuts rather than my full sized oven.)
  3. Place ½ cup of the toasted hazelnuts in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until hazelnuts are finely chopped and crumb-like. Add almond flour, sugar and salt. Pulse to combine. Drizzle maple syrup, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract and pulse until mixture starts to come together.
  4. Continue pulsing dough, while alternating scraping down sides with a spatula, if needed.
  5. Once dough is mostly combined, remove dough and mix dough together with your hands. This may take 1 to 2 minutes. (If it doesn't hold together, place the dough back in the food processor and add a half teaspoon to one teaspoon more melted coconut oil and process.)
  6. Transfer dough to the prepared tart pan. Press dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, so that dough is dispersed evenly. Take your time doing this.
  7. Bake for 22 to 26 minutes. Crust should be a golden color. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack, about 15 minutes.
Make Filling:
  1. Once the crust is cool, prepare ganache filling.
  2. Place chocolate chips in a medium glass bowl and pour coconut milk over chocolate. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring with a rubber spatula after each, until chocolate is almost completely melted. Stir until all chocolate has melted and coconut milk is completely incorporated.
  3. Pour ganache into the cooled crust. Spread in an even layer. (It is okay if ganache slightly covers the crust's edge.)
  4. Roughly chop remaining ½ cup of hazelnuts. Scatter hazelnuts over the top of the filling. Lightly press hazelnuts down with your fingers. Sprinkle tart with flaky sea salt and press down as needed.
  5. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours (or overnight) to set.
  6. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to serving. Remove the tart pan sides before slicing.
  7. Store any leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator.
Notes
* You can use the same amount of cane sugar or coconut sugar in place of the granulated white sugar.
* I used refined coconut oil as it has a more neutral taste than unrefined coconut oil. I love the taste of coconut, especially with chocolate, but I knew that some in my audience were not as fond of coconut as I am. Either will work fine in this recipe.
* While I used dark chocolate chips (Guittard Baking Chips, Extra Dark Chocolate, 63% Cacao), you could also use semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you want to ensure that your tart is gluten-free, read the ingredients on the chocolate chips. Cocoa butter is fine (there’s no dairy) but there might be milk (as in from a cow) in some chips.
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Source:  Variation on a recipe from Salted Plains