Welcome to my 5 Days of Sweets. Also known as, How Mike Will Gain Another 10 Pounds. For the next five days I’ll feature a dessert or cookie that would be just fantastic to serve around the upcoming holidays. To kick it off, we begin with the Chocolate Mousse Tart with Hazelnuts from Everyday Food Magazine. This was our take-along to Thanksgiving dinner last week.

Finally, an excuse to get out the tart pan that I searched all over Northeast Ohio for earlier this year. The really special thing about this recipe is that the crumb crust is made from crushed sugar cones. They added a real great depth of flavor to the tart that you just don’t get from graham crackers. The mousse itself is pretty great too. The recipe made just a bit more than I needed to fill the shell, so Greg and I each got a small custard cup of mousse to enjoy. Candying the hazelnuts was also something I’d not done before. After heating up a simple syrup, you let the raw nuts boil in the syrup for about a minute. Then you drain them and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet for a 15 minute roast in the oven. They turned out terrific and made an excellent crunchy topping for the silky-smooth tart.