Celebrating Love this Valentine’s Day with a Dove® Fruit Chocolate Tart Recipe

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They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Pretty sure that’s true since every time I make something special for my husband, he is very appreciative. We are not the overly romantic Valentine’s Day kind of people. We always do cards, maybe a little chocolate, and aside from the usual roses, we’re pretty much done. I think I spend more time getting the kids something special than my husband. I don’t know why… he is one of those people it’s really hard to shop for. When I start thinking about what he would like, it usually has to do with FOOD.

Since we tend to bake a lot in our house (the beauty of having three daughters who love cooking), I started thinking about what I could make that was different from my usual recipes, but adding that extra something special for Valentine’s Day. I found some fabulous ideas when I was in Target… including some heart-shaped spring form pans. I’ve been wanting these for a long time and voila! lucky for me, Target had them.

Thinking of what I could do with chocolate (because Valentine’s Day is all about chocolate), I thought a fruit & chocolate tart would absolutely be the ideal dessert for Valentine’s Day… and the Dove® Fruit Chocolate I picked up would be perfect to help make it extra special.

I gathered all my ingredients and was ready to get to baking.

Ingredients for Custard:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 cups Half & Half
2 large eggs (you will only use the yolks)
2 tbs. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Prep your eggs ahead of time by separating the yolks and whisking them together. Discard the egg whites. In a saucepan, whisk the sugar, flour, salt while pouring in the half & half slowly. You want to make sure you whisk everything as smooth as possible. Keep whisking for a few minutes until it starts to thicken. Once thick, turn off the heat. Pour about half of the mixture into the bowl of egg yolks and whisk together. Then, pour that egg mixture back into the saucepan and finish mixing all together. Add the butter and vanilla until all is mixed very well.

At this point, you want to take a very fine colander or sieve and put it over a large bowl. You will pour the mixture through the sieve so all the lumps are removed and the custard is extra smooth and creamy. Cover with plastic wrap (you don’t want the top to harden up) and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You can leave it overnight if you are making the tart the next day.

Ingredients for Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cold butter cut up into small pieces
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1 tbs. lemon juice
3 tbs. ice water

In a mixer with a dough attachment, blend the flour and butter until you get a coarse consistency. Add the lemon zest, juice and ice water until the dough forms. Take out and either refrigerate until needed… or press dough into your spring form pans. I used the heart shaped ones I bought, but you can use one tart pan if you like.

Once the dough is ready in the pan, freeze for up to 20 minutes until the dough is hard and cold. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Prick crust with a fork and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Cool completely.

When the crusts are cool, you will assemble your tart. Spoon the custard into the crusts and top as desired.

While at Target, I picked up a few other supplies to make this Valentine’s Day extra special: Dove Dark Chocolate Hearts to pair with some fresh fruit from the produce department. Can I tell you how much I LOVE that Target is a one-stop shop to get everything I need for my family!

The beauty of fruit and chocolate is that they go so perfectly together. Don’t you think? So tell me which one is your favorite?

For this tart, I added Dove® Whole Cherries on top with some powdered sugar. You can also add the Dove® Whole Blueberries or Dove® Whole Cranberries.

This tart had cut up strawberries with a Dove® Dark Chocolate Heart on top… plated with melted chocolate. Take about 3 Dove® Dark Chocolate Hearts and melt in the microwave for 30 seconds. Drizzle on plate.

For this tart, I cut up fresh oranges and drizzled melted Dove® Dark Chocolate on top. Orange and chocolate are perfect together.

How will you be celebrating Valentine’s Day this year? I’d love to hear about your family traditions or special recipes.

Learn more about Dove® on their Website and on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube.