20-Minute Tartlets

Sometimes, you need dessert.  Quickly.  So quickly, in fact, you may be seduced by the likes of things like refrigerated cookie dough, instant pudding, Nutella straight from the jar.  That's okay.  You can give into those temptations and still make something very fancy-pants indeed.  Behold... the 20-minute tartlet.  Don't believe me?  Read on...

So you start with log of cookie dough.  Sugar cookie dough.  Then you roll it into little balls, I'm going to say just shy of an inch in diameter.  (If you have a 24-cup mini-muffin pan, you should have just a bit of dough leftover.) 

Then you smush it.  I tried doing this with a shot glass, but found that the concave bottom made for uneven smushage.  I stared around my kitchen blankly.  Aha!  The lid from a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke.  This worked perfectly.  I pressed it in and wiggled it just a bit and had a perfect little shell.  (Now, if you're one of those I-don't-drink-soda types, don't talk to me.  Use some other bottle top, but, truly, don't talk to me.)

Bake your shells in a 350-degree oven for about 12 minutes, or until they're nice and golden brown.  They may look rather puffy when you take them out.  Fear not, they will fall and look something like this:

You can fill your shells with anything you'd like.  For an afternoon tea, I used instant vanilla pudding (enhanced with a touch of vanilla and almond extracts) and some shaved chocolate.  Unfortunately, they were devoured before I had the chance to snap a photo.

With the leftover shells, I made myself a nice midnight snack, stuffing each with a generous spoonful of Nutella:

Technically, these might be a bit, um, much.  Then again, maybe not.  I sure enjoyed them.  A whole hazelnut right on top would be like the cookie version of a Rocher.  Mmmm...

I love sophisticated desserts as much as the next person.  But really, I love dessert just about any way I can get it.  Sometimes, you've just got to keep it simple to...


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