I made some burnt caramel sauce a while back. It was a bit too burnt, but when mixed with the next, slightly undercooked batch that I made, it was just about right. We'd been gradually using it up as a topping on waffles and desserts, but there was still quite a bit left and I didn't want it to go begging. So, when I ran across this simple tart recipe, it seemed perfect.

The original recipe actually called for making six 3" tartlets. I don't have any small tartlet tins though. But, some quick, back-of-the-envelope calculations told me that one 10" tart would require ~ the same amount of crust as six 3" ones, so I just went with that instead. And that did seem to be about right. I mean, the crust was a bit thicker and tougher than I would have liked, but I'm hoping that swapping out the AP flour for pastry flour and correcting the mistake in the recipe¹ will help with that.

Chocolate-Caramel Tart

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

Pastry

• 90g unsalted butter
• 60g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 150g soft (plain/standard/pastry) flour
• 30g natural cocoa powder
• 1 large egg
• 1-2 Tbsp. milk

Caramel

• 1 c. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. water
• 2/3 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Ganache

• 3/4 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 185g dark chocolate

Directions

Pastry

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Sift the icing sugar and cut it into the butter.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa powder and cut them in as well.
4. Beat the egg and mix it in with a fork.
5. If the pastry is still not coming together, add a little milk a tsp. at a time until it does.
6. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a loose-bottomed 25cm (10") tart tin.
7. Place the tart tin on a baking sheet, line the pastry shell with baking paper, fill with pie weights, and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 10-15 minutes.
8. Remove paper and weights and return to oven for 5 minutes.
9. Set aside to cool.

Caramel

1. Combine the sugar and water, cover, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Uncover and continue cooking, swirling (but not stirring!) occasionally, until sugar is completely dissolved (~5 minutes).
3. Contine cooking until caramel is fairly dark (~4 minutes longer).
4. Remove from heat and carefully stir in cream.
5. Return to medium-low heat and cook, stirring, until smooth.
6. Remove from heat and stir in butter.
7. Once butter is incorporated, stir in the salt and vanilla.
8. Pour the caramel into the baked tart shell and chill for at least an hour to firm up the caramel a bit.

Ganache

1. Combine the chocolate and cream and warm over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. (Althernatively, scald the cream over medium heat and then pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand for five minutes. Then stir until mixture is smooth.)
2. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
3. Once ganache and caramel have both firmed up slightly (but ganache is still pourable), pour the ganache into the tart shell.
4. Chill for at least two hours or until firm.
5. If desired, sprinkle with a small amount of flaky salt before serving.

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¹ The original recipe calls for "1 1/4 c. (6 1/2 oz./200g) all-purpose flour". Unfortunately, I just went with the metric measurement without checking their conversions. And their math is way off! 1 1/4 c. of flour weighs ~150g, not 200! So, my pastry was way too dry an dwould not come together at all. So I ened up having to add a bunch of milk to get it to the right consistency. But that really wasn't ideal. And between the extra mixing and the extra volume and having to work it so much to get it to a not completely ridiculous thickness, it was pretty tough by the time I'd finished with it. So, as noted, hopefully by using the corrext amount of a soft flour next time, I'll be able to mostly avoid that particular failure mode. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was still good! I just felt that the pastry was a bit of a letdown and detracted from the delicious filling a bit. ^Back