The past couple of years we have celebrated Mother’s Day the same way, a small BBQ lunch at my parents house with immediate family and a few family friends. My husband would man the grill and I would be in charge of the salad and dessert. I would always make these Mini Raspberry Chocolate Tarts because they were such a hit and were so perfectly suited for the occasion. Little small cups of chocolate with a slight tang from the raspberry jelly added into the ganache and topped off a fresh raspberry. Everyone loved them. But somehow, between last year and this year I managed to lose the recipe causing my OCD to go crazy trying to find it again on the internet. I shamefully spent about 14 hours of my life feverishly trying to find that recipe, and I honestly think the recipe has been scrubbed from the internet. The bright side to this whole fiasco is that, had I managed to find the recipe, I never would have come up with this healthier and even tastier version of the original.

These Mini Chocolate Tarts have a crispy and chewy chocolate cookie crust and are filled with a luscious lavendar and rose chocolate ganache. In a collaboration with Honey Mama’s chocolates I elected to use their Lavender & Rose flavored bar to suit the occasion. Really any kind of chocolate can be used here. The Honey Mama’s bars are naturally sweetened with honey, are made with well sourced ingredients, are dairy free with no weird additives or stabilizers. Their chocolate is so good and if you get the chance to try them, I can’t recommend it enough. They seriously melt in your mouth and come in some very lovely flavor combinations. My favorite is definitely the Mayan Spice.

These mini tarts are a double dose of chocolate but with only natural ingredients and do not feel over indulgent. I topped these off with some dried rose petals and a raspberry to contrast the chocolate. You can leave these bare or sprinkle something fun on top. We love these at Mother’s Day, but really these would be wonderful for any occasion where you want to impress chocolate-loving guests and ditch the desserts with processed sugars and gluten. Don’t be daunted by the seemingly long recipe. I go into a good amount of detail on each step because there’s nothing I hate more than an ambiguous instruction. And these do take a bit of time, but it mostly just waiting for the chocolate to set.

paleo, dairy free, gluten free, grain free, naturally sweetened

Mini Chocolate Tarts

These mini chocolate tarts are the perfect little desserts to impress your friends and family without being laden with gluten, dairy, or refined sugars. These little tarts have a crispy and chewy chocolate cookie cup and a luscious chocolate ganache. I made these with Lavendar Red Rose Honey Mama's chocolate to make them feel super sophisticated but any chocolate will do!

paleo, dairy free, gluten free, grain free, naturally sweetened

freshlydafna.com

Course Dessert

Servings 16 mini tarts

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

1/4 coconut oil melted and cooled
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp sea salt

Chocolate Filling Ingredients

5 oz chocolate* (I used Honey Mama's Lavender Rose Chocolate) chopped
4 tbsp non-dairy milk**

Optional Toppings

dried rose petals
raspberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and grease well a mini muffin tin with coconut oil.
Make the cups: Cream together the coconut oil, coconut sugar, egg, and vanilla until well combined.
In a medium bowl mix together all the dry ingredients: cacao powder, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until just full incorporated and there are no light streaks.
Scoop out small golf sized balls of the dough and place them into the muffin tin cups. Then using your fingers press the dough into the rim side and bottom each tin so a cup forms.
Bake the cups in the center rack of the oven for 9-10 minutes. The top edges of the cups should look just slightly darker. Remove from oven and let cool down for about 5 minutes. Then gently twist out of the cups and let cool completely on the cooling rack.
This recipe makes about 16 mini cups, and my mini muffin tin only holds 12 cups so I made a full batch of 12, and then did another round of the remaining 4.
Make the ganache: In a double boiler, over a medium high flame place the chocolate and milk of choice to a heat-proof bowl. Mix the chocolate and milk until the chocolate just starts to melt. About 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and continue mixing. Keep stirring until all the milk has been combined with the chocolate and thick and shiny chocolate ganache forms.
At this point I like to put the chocolate mixture into a heat-proof measuring cup with a spout for easier pouring. Pour the chocolate into the little cups. If you are topping this with something heavy (like a raspberry) leave a little room from the top to avoid spillage.
Let the chocolate set (it will get thicker) at room temperature. This will really depend on the temperature of your kitchen at the time. For me it was a bit warm and took about an hour until I could add the topping.
Let it set completely for a few hours. If you are serving these the same day you can keep these at room temperature. Otherwise, you can store these in the fridge, just ensure that the chocolate has completely cooled to avoid cracks from forming from a temperature shock.

Recipe Notes

*I used Honey Mama's Lavender Rose Chocolate and they came out wonderfully. You could use any kind of chocolate or flavored chocolate. Honey Mama's also makes a Ginger Cardamom bar that I suspect would be terrific in this recipe.

** Non-dairy milk: I have made this with almond milk and coconut milk. We preferred the almond milk, it was more balanced. But feel free to use whatever you like without effecting the flavor of the ganache filling.

If you make this recipe I'd love to see your creation! Please either post a comment or picture on this page or if you're posting on Instagram please tag @freshlydafna and use #freshlydafna

Disclaimer: I received some Honey Mama’s chocolates for free to develop this recipe and for a giveaway on my Instagram account. All opinions are my own and I was not paid to write this post.