Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust

This month's theme for What's Baking was "sweet n salty".  This left open so many possibilities!  I had made salted caramel blondies last fall which were delish, but did I want to go that route again?  I turned to trusty ol' Google and came across this recipe for a chocolate tart with a pretzel crust.  Yes, please!!!

It was a little time-consuming, though I could have split it up a bit more and done the crust either earlier in the day or the night before, but I didn't mind spending the time on it (it was a lot of "do this then let it chill for 30 min" steps so I had some free time to do other things).

One issue I ran into was with the crust.  It was super hot in my apartment when I was making this, so I'd take the dough out of the fridge from chilling, and it would warm up pretty fast.  This may have been the cause for the crust not staying formed when I went to bake it.  Even with the pie weights the crust rose more than it should have.  But even if the end result was more crust than chocolate (I ended up being able to put in maybe 3/4 of the filling) it still came out delicious.  I don't know if I needed more chocolate, and the crust was so good I wanted more of it.

I ended up bringing this as a dessert for our Father's Day celebration with my in-laws and not only did everyone enjoy it, but I got the best compliment of all - as we were saying our goodbyes my nephew only wanted to know if the chocolate pie was staying!

Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust (slightly adapted from foodandwine.com)

Ingredients 
Crust:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened 
1 1/4 cups coarsely crushed thin pretzels (3 1/2 ounces) 
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 
1/2 cup all-purpose flour 
1 large egg 
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

 

Filling:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream 

3/4 lb milk chocolate, chopped 

sea salt, crushed pretzels and crème fraîche, for serving  

Directions
- In a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with 3/4 cup of the pretzels and the confectioners' sugar at low speed until creamy. Beat in the flour and egg. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of pretzels, being sure to leave some pretzel pieces intact. Flatten the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes.

-  Roll out the dough between the sheets of plastic wrap to a 12-inch round. Peel off the top sheet and invert the dough over a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough into the corners and patch any tears. Trim the overhanging dough and refrigerate the shell for 30 minutes or until firm. 

- Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Off the heat, add the milk chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer the filling to a bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 1 hour.


- Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line the shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for about 30 minutes, until nearly set. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the tart shell is firm; cover the edge with foil if it darkens too much. Let the shell cool completely. Brush the melted chocolate over the bottom and up the side and refrigerate for 10 minutes, until set.

- Pour the filling into the shell and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and crushed pretzels. Cut into wedges, top with crème fraîche; serve.