salted chocolate caramel tart

  Do you ever wonder why people always want you to choose a category?  Beer versus wine? City versus suburbs? Dogs versus cats? Sweet vs. salty? Good versus evil?

  When asked the penultimate question, I usually say salt.  Because I can stop myself from eating cake, but put a pizza in front of me and I can eat half the pie if no one’s looking.  But if you read this blog, you know I spend a fair amount of time on the sweet side of the fence, too.  They both have their merits, and I refuse to choose. (This is actually true about me for a lot of things.  Typical Libra).

  Now, the salted caramel thing has been going on for a while now, and for good reason.  It’s scrumptious.  Add a layer of chocolate on top of it, put the whole thing in a tart crust, and now it’s fancy, too.  So if you’re looking to please both kinds of people, and get some baking accolades at the same time, may I suggest this salted chocolate caramel tart?  Now, there is a lot of chilling time involved in this recipe, so it’s not a great choice if you’re looking for something quick.  But the hands on time is minimal; most of the steps take 5  minutes or less.  It only looks complicated, I promise.

btw- sorry for dropping that big 50 cent word up there, but it’s one of my favorites, and I like to show it off.

ingredients:

adapted from The Perfect Finish

for crust:

• 5 tbl. unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 c. all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

for caramel:

• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. sugar
• pinch sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

for chocolate ganache:

• 1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips, finely chopped
• 1 c. heavy cream
• pinch sea salt plus more for sprinkling top

  To make the crust, cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add egg and mix until incorporated. Mix flour and salt int a separate bowl.  Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, a little at a time, until just incorporated.  Shape dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and flatted into a disk.  Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

  When dough is ready, heavily flour your counter-top and roll dough to a 1/4″ thick.  Gently fit into your tart pan, tucking dough against the sides and bottom.  Roll your rolling pin over the top edges of the pan to trim the dough.  Wrap loosely in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line the tart crust with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights (or dried beans).  Bake for about 30 minutes, until crust looks dry to the eye.  Remove foil and pie weights and bake an additional 5-10 minutes, until crust turns a light golden brown.  Place on a wire rack to cool.

  To make the caramel, heat cream in a small saucepan to just a boil and set aside.  Combine sugar with 5 tbl. water in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine.  Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.  Heat over medium heat, without stirring, until sugar mixture reaches 370°.  Take off heat and whisk in cream.  Allow to cool for a few minutes (until temperature dips below 250°).  Put back on medium heat until it reaches 250°.  Pour it slowly (seriously, hot caramel on skin is worse than a bikini wax) into the tart crust and spread to touch edges.  Allow to cool. To see a photo tutorial for making caramel, see my pumpkin pie spice caramels.

  To make the chocolate ganache, put chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Heat the cream until it just reaches a boil.  Pout over the chocolate, whisk to combine and cover bowl with a plate.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Whisk chocolate mixture until smooth and pout over the caramel.  Let cool, at least 3 hours.  Sprinkle the top of the tart with sea salt.