Maple syrup walnut bar

Pierre Hermé is the acclaimed French Pastry Chef. Vogue magazine called him the "the Picasso of Pastry", "Pastry provocateur" by Food & Wine, "An avant-garde pastry chef and a magician with tastes" by Paris- Match, "The Kitchen Emperor" by New York Times, and "The King of Modern Pâtisserie" by the Guardian, along with honors and decorations, and most importantly the admiring gratitude of connoisseurs of gourmet sweets around the world. The next time I am in Paris I will visit his famous Pastry shop located on Rue Bonaparte in the Saint Germain des Prés area. I am very familiar with this area and used to go shopping there, but I don't remember seeing his pastry shop there.. something for me to check out one of these days....

Nutella is a hazelnut cream butter that is very popular in Europe. In Europe Kids eat Nutella spread over bread. It is like the popularity equivalent of Peanut butter sandwich here in the States.

Pierre Herme created the Nutella tart for his wife because Nutella has been her weakness since childhood.

Pierre's pate pâte sucrèe (sweet tart dough) is also different from the basic recipe. His crust is rich, crunchy and almost falling apart in your mouth.

The Nutella tart is best eaten at room temperature. I really enjoyed the richness of the chocolate, the Nutella addition and the crunchiness of the dough and the Hazelnut.

Butter is place in a mixer bowl with paddle attachment and beaten on low speed until creamy.

Sugar, grounded almond, salt are added and eggs are added on low speed to blend all the ingredients.

Next flour is added and mix until forming a ball.

This recipe is good for 3 portions. I will only use one portion and the tow others will go into the freezer.

The dough is refrigerate for a least an hour and then it is rolled out.

Lining an 8" tart mold with the dough.

Making the ganache by melting the butter and chocolate.

The choclocate and butter are almost melted..

I am letting the ganache cooled down a little and then eggs is added to the mixture

A layer of Nutella is spread on top of the baked pâte sucrèe.

The ganache is pouredover the Nutella in the tart shell

Roasting the hazel nuts in the over and then rubbing them against each other to remove their skins.

The nut is then sprinkle on top the tart. The tart will go in the oven for 11 minutes just enough time to turn the top of the tart dull.

Once the tart is out of the oven and cooled down, Nutella is piped into thin lines trough out the whole tart.