Mini Nutella Tarlettes

About 

I had read a similar recipe somewhere and decided to try this out. It turned out to be an absolute favorite and within minutes they were gone!  I made them out of regular phyllo sheets simply because I had no time to run to the grocery store to grab the shells. Also, I had sheets left over from my spanakopita rolls and baklava tarts. But if you can’t be bothered to cut the mini squares, you can find packaged phyllo cups in the frozen section in the local grocery store, where phyllo dough and prepared frozen pie crusts are sold. But if you want to make a quick desert and cannot be bothered to buy phyllo cups, just like I wasn't, you can follow this recipe by just using phyllo dough sheets. Simply cut the sheets into 1-1 ½ inch squares with a pizza cutter and push them into a greased mini muffin cup (For every 4 set of sheets, you will be able to make approx 8 squares). You'll want to butter and layer about 4 sheets of phyllo in each mini muffin well to get a nice, crispy phyllo cup. Once you fill each of the mini muffin cup wells, bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely on a baking rack before filling.

Ingredients

Nutella or any good quality chocolate/hazelnut spread- 1 ½ cups

Heavy whipped cream- 2 cups

Phyllo shells- 8 (to make 16)

Toasted almonds or walnuts- ½ cup, for garnishing

Method

Step 1- Mix

In a large mixing bowl, place cold heavy whipping cream and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add nutella and carefully fold the whipped cream into the Nutella.

Step 2- Transfer

Transfer this Nutella cream mixture into a pastry bag or simply just cut corners of a large gallon sized zip lock bag and fill with the mixture.

Step 3- Piping

Pipe the Nutella misture into the phyllo shells. Hold tip approximately ½ in. above the shell at a 90° angle to the surface. Squeeze out the mixture without releasing pressure, raise tip slightly as you drop a line of icing around the tip in a tight, complete rotation.  After completing the first rotation, move tip toward center and up and around to make a second spiral around the inside edge of the first spiral. Release pressure to end spiral at center of shell.

Step 4- Garnish

Garnish with whole almond or in this case, I garnished with chopped walnuts left over from my baklava recipe!

Step 5- Serve

Serve immediately because the nutella mixture will start to melt if left out for too long. Alternatively, you can make in advance and refrigerate it and take out right 10 minutes before serving.

Chef's Tip: As you can see my nutella mixture melted because it was a hot day even though it wasn't left outside for too long! Who cares though!? It turned out to be a big hit!!

Happy Cooking!!