Hazelnut Praline Tart: hazelnut praline cream cheese mousse in a hazelnut cookie crust, garnished with caramelized hazelnuts (description from LPK's Culinary Groove menu)
My second tart from LPK's Culinary Groove was eaten a day later and turned out to be less successful than the passion fruit tart.
The crust of this tart was too moist, perhaps a function of being a day-old. It didn't do anything for the tart.
Although I am a BIG fan of Nutella (and still bear a grudge against my parents for keeping me in the dark about its existence for 18 years), I think hazelnut should be incidental to chocolate. This tart is deceptive because it's brown colour and the natural association of chocolate and hazelnut led me to believe it would be more chocolatey than it was. The flavour was all hazelnut and sweetness without any of the bitterness of chocolate that I had anticipated.
This tart is best eaten slightly chilled. My favorite aspect was the foamy texture of the hazelnut mousse, which eventually melted into a gooey, non-descript filling once the tart warmed to room temperature.
The hazelnut topping wasn't caramelized, but there was a nice caramelized sugar topping which glistened and provided the only bright spot to an otherwise very brown palate. After the visually-appealing passion fruit tart with its interesting flavours, the hazelnut tart was anti-climactic. It was all right as an every day tart, but it didn't make me sit up and think...this is a pastry worth crossing the city for.
The Nutella was in the cupboard for sometime and never got eaten. It only spoiled. From that day on, no more Nutella.
ReplyDeleteI can't make any comments on the tart as I just found out that I'm allergic to hazelnuts. Well, on Nutella, I don't know of its existence until I saw jar of Nutella on a Giant's shelf, some 21 years ago. On the other hand, I know of Nautilus; they're shells. There's also the Nautilus, a nuclear-powered sub.
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