Chocolate Hazelnut Tart (and a new sponsor!) (and a GIVEAWAY!)

It looks good, but it's not done yet!

Well, guys, as of today I've acquired what must be the sweetest sponsorship deal on the planet. Every Friday I will have a post sponsored by Whole Foods, and it's pretty darned exciting. The deal is that Whole Foods lets me shop for whatever I want to make and post about. Whatever. Absolutely whatever.

Yeah, that's scary. Me running wild in Whole Foods, shopping for a basket full of whatevers. And trust me, with the remodel of the local store (now one of the largest Whole Foods stores in the country!) I was having a heck of a lot of fun buying what I needed for this first post. The remodel isn't done yet, but what's done is pretty impressive.

It was hard to narrow down what I wanted to make first, and since it could be anything, I had a whole lot to choose from. So many different foods were available.

Anyway, I've been talking to my local WF for a while about this project and they like what I do on this blog, and the way I do it. They don't want me to change anything except that I'll be shopping at Whole Foods for my Friday posts. Oh, and I have to say "Whole Foods" a minimum of 47 times per post.

Just kidding.

It's looking right at you. Want some?

They didn't actually require that I mention them at all, but that would be sort of silly since they're sponsoring me and I do need to disclose that they're footing the bill for my Friday recipes. From now on, I'll be using the tagline Whole Foods Friday for my posts because it sounds kind of cool.

Oh yeah. And when they get their new local blog ready to go (later today, actually), my posts will appear there. Meanwhile, you can visit my local Whole Foods group of stores on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

And to sweeten the pot, there's a giveaway. Actually, there will be a few giveaways this month because I've got a bunch of stuff that needs a good home. Some of it was given to me, and some of it I bought. But there will be giveaways this month.

The first giveaway is sponsored by Whole Foods, and it's a $25 Whole Foods gift certificate. (Thank you WF!) The winning is easy. Or, yeah, entering is easy.

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN NOTIFIED. The winner is Sara, and her gift card is on its way!

Open to US residents only.


The only thing you have to do to be entered is to comment about the recipe in this post. Whatever you want to say. For example, you could tell me what other flavor you'd like in this recipe. Or anything, really. Except if you're spammy or vulgar, I'll remove the comment.


You can get additional entries for EACH of these (in no particular order):
1) Follow Cookistry and Whole Foods Boulder (wfmboulder) on Twitter
2) Tweet a link to this contest mentioning @cookistry AND @wfmboulder in your tweet.
3) Follow this blog.


For each extra entry, post a comment here letting me know what you've. A separate comment for each thing that you do - so you can have up to four chances to win. ALSO - make sure you've given me some way to contact you if you win - email or Twitter is fine. The contest begins on June 3 and ends on June 8 at midnight Mountain time. I'll use random.org to pick a winner, and you'll have 48 hours after notification to respond, or the prize will be awarded to someone else.

And this isn't the only giveaway this month. I've got more goodies in the prize closet. You'll see.

So enough of the contest on on to the FOOD portion of this post.

Since this is my first sponsored post by Whole Foods and since they helped Justin's Nut Butter get off the ground and since Justin's is a local company (Seriously, the guy was at my local farmer's market with samples when the company was new!) I decided that featuring one of that company's products made a heck of a lot of sense. It all ties in. Local, sponsor... and I'm a little nutty.

I tried a couple of Justin's products and although I was tempted to write a really simple recipe about dipping a spoon into a jar, I decided I needed something more interesting.

And then I got carried away. Mmmmmm....dessert!

I decided to use the chocolate hazelnut butter for this recipe, but I also made a version with one of the almond butters. Any of them would work - just change the toppings and garnishes to match the nut butter you use.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

For the crust:
6 graham crackers
1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) melted unsalted butter

For the filling:
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Justin's chocolate hazelnut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the topping:
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped

For the hazelnut whipped cream (optional):
1 pint heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup hazelnut liqueur

For the chocolate garnish (optional):
Good quality dark chocolate bar, as needed

To make the crust:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the hazelnuts in your food processor and process until they are finely ground. Add the sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add the graham crackers and pulse until you have fine crumbs. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. If you don't have enough, add more graham crackers, as needed. Transfer the crumbs to a bowl and add the melted butter. Stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened.

Transfer the crumbs to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Place the tart pan on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees until the crust is lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Let the crust cool completely, then refrigerate unless you're filling it right away. It might be a tad crumbly, but it does firm up.

To make the filling:
Place all of the filling ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or into a large bowl if you prefer to use a hand mixer. Beat the ingredients until they are well combined and light.

Transfer the filling to the cooled crust, spread evenly, and smooth the top. Top with the chopped hazelnuts. Refrigerate until serving time.

To make the hazelnut whipped cream:
This is easiest if you have a cream whipper. Just combine all the ingredients, stir to combine, and pour them into your cream whipper. Charge the cream whipper and dispense as needed.

You can also whip the cream by hand until you have stiff peaks.

Unless you're going to go crazy with the whipped cream, this makes more than you're going to need, but I always manage to find a use for the extra.

To make the chocolate garnish:
Use a vegetable peeler to "shave" the chocolate bar to make the garnish. You can shave the chocolate and sprinkle it on, or shave it directly onto the tart.

To assemble:
The whipped cream and chocolate shavings are optional, but I think they make this tart a little more special.

If you're going to serve the tart all at once, you can decorate the whole tart with whipped cream and shave the chocolate over the top before slicing.

If you won't be serving all at once, you don't want the whipped cream sitting on top of the tart and getting weepy. In that case, garnish each slice with whipped cream and chocolate shavings as you serve.