Almond Joy Tarts
Mini tarts with an almond crust, creamy coconut filling, and chocolate topping. Like an almond joy candy bar in tart form!
My mini tart pans are among my most favorite things in my kitchen. They’re so small and cute, and with them I can make the most adorable desserts. Yet, I hardly ever use them. They largely sit unused and unloved in a cupboard.
I am such a sugar junkie (if you couldn’t tell) and I love candy. Only, I hardly ever allow myself to eat it and I almost never buy it. With all the baked goods I have passing through my kitchen, I figure I can’t handle any more empty calories. But sometimes a chocolate candy bar sounds so good, you know?
On Sunday these Almond Joy Tarts rescued me. I had an excuse to use my little tart pans. I finally tried a recipe from a new cookbook, a recipe that jumped out at me from the first time I flipped through it and has been doggie-eared ever since. And I got to eat a chocolate bar. Kind of.
These tarts taste remarkably like the candy bar, only better. The crust has faint hint of almond, the white chocolate and coconut filling is divine, and the chocolate glaze is the icing on the cake, so to speak. It’s a candy bar for us grownups.
While it may look like a complicated recipe with many steps, don’t be intimidated. It is all very doable, and doesn’t require too much time. If you don’t have little tart pans, bake one large tart instead, or bake the shells in a muffin pan. There’s no excuse to not make them! I may have waited too long, but there’s no reason you should.
Almond Joy Tarts
Ingredients
For the tart dough:
- ¼ cup whole toasted almonds
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter , cold and cut into cubes
- 1 large egg , lightly whisked
For the filling:
- 8 ounces white chocolate , chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 tablespoon rum
For the chocolate glaze:
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup whole toasted almonds
Instructions
- To make the tart dough, put the almonds and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the almonds are finely ground. Add the flour and salt and pulse until just combined. Add the butter and pulse until sandy, about 6 to 10 quick pulses. Add the egg and pulse until the dough comes together into a ball. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.
- To make the coconut filling, place the white chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream just to a boil and pour over the white chocolate. Let it stand for 30 seconds, then whisk until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- To assemble the tart, begin by preparing the tart crusts. Dust a work surface with flour. Divide the dough disk into 6 equal portions. Roll each into a smooth disk (the dough will be sticky) 5 ½ inches in diameter. Very gently press each dough disk into a 4 inch tart pan with removable bottom.
- Place the tart pans in the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line the tart crusts with aluminum foil and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
- Remove the white chocolate ganache from the fridge and put in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat at a medium speed until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Do not overwhip. Fold in the coconut and run. Divide the filling between the 6 tart shells and place them in the fridge while you make the chocolate glaze.
- To make the chocolate glaze, place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Put the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Let the mixture set for about 10 minutes, then pour over the filled tart shells. Top each tart with toasted almonds and refrigerate until the glaze sets, about 10 minutes.
- Store the tarts in the fridge, they will keep for several days.
Um yes please! We adore Almond Joys…ooh and tiny tart pans also. These look completely amazing…!
Oh holy heck…. I love everything about this and I need to get onto making this asap… wowza! that's a winner my friend!
xox tash
Wow soo cute and irresistible tarts, marvellous!
So pretty! One day I must buy mini tart pans.
I've been eyeing these in Baked Explorations too! Almond Joys are one of my favorite candies but I rarely buy them…these tarts would be such a tasty treat! Yours look delicious 🙂
I definitely should get me some mini-tart pans. These are beautiful and look delicious! I also added the cookbook to my to-read list on goodreads.com.
These look so delicious! I think we have very similar taste 🙂 Almond Joy has always been one of my favorite candy bars!
These are mini, so I can have more than one, right? 🙂
This is a beautiful post, and your blog is absolutely beautiful. I really love your design aesthetic and your baking ideas. I have to agree with you and say that my favorite kitchen tool is the mini tart pan. It's the darn cuteness of the finished little things. I love how your crust is thick. I will have to stop rolling out my dough so thin. It's really not cool. This is a detail I completely overlooked until I saw your post. Thanks so much for sharing. Cheers.
I can't wait to make and eat these. Thank you for sharing.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Almond Joys – these look awesome!
Thanks for sharing!
Susan http://www.ugogrrl.com
Oh these look perfect! Such gorgeous flavours, I wish my family liked coconut as much as me – I fear if I made these I would be enjoying them alone! No problem for me, but for my waistline… 🙂
Happy birthday! What a fun treat to have someone else bake for your special day. Those cupcakes look wonderful and so delicious, and your Almond Joy tarts are mouthwatering! Thanks for sharing, Annalise.
My husband would LOVE this! He's a huge almond/almond paste fan. Our wedding cake even had marzipan icing. I'm bookmarking these to make soon.
Wow! it almost looks like candy. I will try this recipe after dinner. I bookmarked this page too because this recipe looks really great.
Caterers In New York
Hi, I made these yesterday after borrowing the book from the library. Today I did a search for an alternate recipe with the same idea and came up with yours (almost identical). I see you halved the white chocolate in the filling but kept the heavy cream and coconut the same. Is that a typo error or did you try that amount with good results? I made them in mini muffin pans. I thought the ground nuts in the crust were a bit overpowering and the coconut flavor wasn’t strong enough. Maybe because I used 1 cup of coconut to 8 oz white chocolate and 1/2 cup heavy cream. The rum added a nice kick but I think I would put in some coconut extract or coconut liquer instead.
These are so cute and they look equally delicious! Can’t wait to try these out 🙂
These are delicious but a complete pain to make. They have become a family favorite but I will only make them on special occasions because of how time intensive they are…. Not difficult, just a lot of waiting for everything to cool, set, etc