Lush Chocolate Caramel Tart
Chocolate Caramel Tart! Explosion of bitter, sweet, luscious chocolate caramel on a buttery biscuit crust. Melts in your mouth goodness which gives that fuzzy feeling of all things wonderful. A slice of chocolate caramel heaven 😊!
Servings: 8 inch round tart tin
Ingredients
Tart crust
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 120 g unsalted butter
Tart filling
dark chocolate ganache
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (60% cocoa content)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
caramel
- 1/3 cup Stay Soft Caramel (see recipe vid below)
Instructions
Easy Tart Crust
- Lightly butter, or using baking spray, grease an 8 inch (20cm) round tart pan.
- In the food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, cold butter and salt to combine until the pastry starts to come together and form clumps.
- Transfer the pastry to the prepared pans and using your fingers, evenly press the pastry up the sides of the pan and onto the bottom.
- Gently pierce the bottom of the crust with the tines of a fork. This is to prevent the pastry crust from puffing up while it bakes.
- Cover the tart crust with cling wrap and place it in the freezer for an hour or overnight to firm up. This helps to prevent the pastry from shrinking while it bakes.
- Preheat oven to 220C. Place the frozen tart shell on a larger baking tray and bake the crust at the lowest rack of the oven. Bake for ~15 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Once cooled, un-mould from tart pan and chill in the fridge whilst making the filling.
Dark Chocolate Ganache
- Heat the heavy cream till just boiling and pour over the dark chocolate chips.
- Stir briskly until the dark chocolate is completely melted and the chocolate ganache is smooth and has no lumps. Leave to cool.
Assembly
- Pour the caramel sauce onto the tart shell. Freeze for 30 minutes to allow the caramel to set.
- Layer on the cooled chocolate ganache on top of the caramel, filling it to just a line below the top of the tart shell (do not overfill).
- Use a small toothpick to break any air bubbles in the chocolate ganache.
- Chill for at least an hour to set the ganache and fuse the flavours. Enjoy.
Video
Notes
Stay Soft Caramel
The Stay Soft Caramel is the star of this dessert and can be made in just 10 minutes on the stove. In cooking the caramel, you will need to watch it carefully as the sugar browns. For more details, watch the recipe vid below and check out the tips in my Beautiful Stay Soft Caramel post.
Tart Crust
How to get a beautiful tart crust every time?
- Always use COLD, COLD, COLD butter and work quickly. I used a food processor to pulse the flour, sugar and butter until it formed small clumps. The small clumps come together to form a very malleable pastry which you can work by hand to mould into the tart tin. No rolling is required.
- Allow sufficient freezing time for the tart shells to firm up before baking and always bake from frozen, straight from the freezer to the hot oven. This helps the tart shell to hold its shape well during the 15 minute baking time.
- I don’t blind bake this tart crust as it is stable and usually does not puff up during baking. This is because the tart pastry is poked with a fork before baking which helps to release heat during baking. Occasionally, if there is a little puffing, just poke the tart base gently with a wooden skewer to release the heat during baking. Once the trapped heat is released, the tart crust will bake intact again.
- Be gentle when removing the tart shell after baking. My 8-inch non stick tart tin with removable bottom makes it easy to remove the shell well. Be extra careful handling the tart shell once un-moulded. Always use a palette knife to hold the bottom when moving the tart shell. Shortcrust pastry is quite crumbly and trust me, a chipped shell spoils even the prettiest looking tart.
- This tart crust pastry is a good make ahead. Once moulded into the tart pan, it can be kept frozen in a ziplock bag or cling wrap for up to a week before use.
- I have used 73.5% cocoa content chocolate and 60% cocoa content chocolate to make this Chocolate Caramel Tart. The 60% cocoa content chocolate was perfect.
- I found the 73.5% cocoa content chocolate too bitter, so much so that the bitterness upsets the balance with the sweet caramel. I would say if you like your chocolate dark, go with no more than 70% cocoa content chocolate for the ganache.
- If it’s left to me, I’ll always salt my caramel. That said, two of my three gals do not like salt on their chocolate caramel so I’ve left it as an optional. IMHO, a generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt before serving just brings out the flavor of the chocolate and tempers the sweetness of the caramel. Though, salt or no salt, this Lush Chocolate Caramel Tart is still simply irresistible!