Spark My Pantry : Salted Caramel Tart

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Salted Caramel Tart

Salted caramel tart with bittersweet chocolate ganache, trust me it tastes about as decadent and luxurious as it sounds. crunchy crumbly chocolate pastry shell, encasing a velvet smooth rich caramel levelled perfectly with fleur de sel (or sea salt, harvested from France), and finished with a blanket of bittersweet chocolate ganache.

Sounds technical doesn't it? And it is in some respects, but also very very achievable, especially if you've already mastered the art of pastry making in my other tart recipes. Read tips before following the recipe at the bottom of this blogpost.

PASTRY

Pastry can be made by hand, rubbing the butter and flour together to form a breadcrumb-like texture, before gently working in the egg and water. Or by simply popping the butter and flour into a food processor, mixing briefly, then using the 'pulse' feature to add the egg yolk and liquids. By using the latter method the pastry only needs a minute or so of light kneading, before wrapping and chilling in the fridge.

Pastry must always be chilled before rolling. This makes it more likely to stick to itself, and not your bench or rolling pin. Also, just as you dust the bench with flour, do the same to your rolling pin. And if you don't have a rolling pin - a wine bottle will suffice. When rolling be sure to rotate the dough frequently, adding a dust of flour as necessary, this makes sure that it is rolling evenly, and not sticking to the bench.

Once you've rolled the pastry to the desired thickness and size gently fold it over the pin to help you transfer it to the dish. Then once it is pressed into the dish, simply roll the pin over the top of the tart or pie dish to cut the edges evenly. Baking Blind is a technique using baking beads or uncooked rice which holds the pastry in place while it begins to bake, without it the butter in the pastry can cause it to ooze down the sides of your tin - not so pretty!

CARAMEL

This was actually my first time making authentic caramel. Usually I do the 'cheat' version of sweetened condensed milk with butter and golden syrup. Today I made the real deal, and trust me the flavour result is well worth the effort. Before heating the sugar I brought the cream, butter and salt to the boil (obviously omit the salt if you want plain caramel), then removed it from the heat to set aside.

Next, I mixed the water and sugar over a high heat till dissolved then left, without stirring for 8 - 15 minutes (depending on the heat of your element). Here it bubbles up, and will eventually turn a deep golden colour, that's when it is ready. At this point, remove it from the heat, and carefully, slowly add the melted butter and cream mixture while whisking. It will create quite the reaction and bubble up, but persevere, the result will be silky smooth.

I like to pour the caramel into the tart case while still warm, otherwise you risk it getting to firm to easily work with.

CHOCOLATE

Melting chocolate is easy right? Well, not always, and is very sensitive to high heat, over heat it, and it becomes grainy and unpleasant. The easiest way I find to melt chocolate is to keep an eye on it, in a double boiler. A metal or glass bowl, rested upon a small saucepan of simmering water, making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.

I put the cream for the ganache into the bowl, and when it begins to warm, add the cubes of chocolate. I stir this for a minute or two, then turn the element off and leave it for a few more minutes. Now whisk or stir well, and the chocolate will continue to melt with the heat of the cream. Eventually becoming silky smooth. Again work with it while it's still warm (not hot as it may melt the caramel).

Ingredients (serves 16):

Pastry

1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/4 cup of cocoa
1/4 cup of icing sugar
180 grams cold butter, diced
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp chilled water

Caramel

3/4 cup of cream
90 grams of butter
300 grams of white sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/2-1 tsp fleur de sel, sea salt

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup of cream
150 grams Whittaker's Dark Ghana 72% Chocolate

Method:

Make the pastry:

Put flour, cocoa, and icing sugar into the blender, pulse a couple times, to 'sieve' and combine.

Add diced butter, pulse till it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add egg yolk, and 1 tbsp water, pulse. Continue adding two more spoonfuls of water until it starts to come together into a ball (You may only need two spoonfuls depending on the size of your egg yolk).

Tip pastry onto a floured board and gently knead for a couple of minutes so that it feels smooth. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a 30 cm fluted tart tin, or 8 mini fluted tart tins. Remove pastry bake to the floured board, or a piece of greaseproof baking paper. Roll the dough out to form a circle slightly larger than your tin, about 5 mm thick. Use the pin to transfer the dough to your greased tin, press gently and roll over the top to cut the excess from the edges.

Cover the pastry with a piece of greaseproof baking paper and fill with baking beads or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and baking beads/rice and cook for a further 15 minutes (10 for mini tarts).

The pastry should be pulling away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin while you make the caramel.

Make the caramel:

In a small saucepan, measure cream, salt and butter. Heat till nearly boiling, and butter is completely melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

In another heavy based saucepan, measure water and sugar. Bring to the boil on a high heat, stirring until the sugar is completely melted. Continue boiling without stirring for approximately 10 minutes till it turns a golden caramel colour, it will also start to smell delicious.

Once the colour has changed, remove from the heat and carefully (it will boil up like a crazed science experiment - fun for the kids to watch), whisk while slowly adding the melted cream and butter. Keep stirring till you get the silky smooth caramel. Taste to check the salt, you may wish to add more, you want the salt to balance with the sweet of the caramel so that you taste both, but neither overpowers the other.

Let the caramel cool a bit, so it's still warm and flowing, but not hot. Pour it into the tart shell and tilt to spread evenly. Chill in the refrigerator to set for at least two hours.

Make the chocolate ganache:

Create a double boiler (see above), and pour the cream into the bowl. Allow to heat then add cubed chocolate. When chocolate begins to melt, turn the heat off, and leave the bowl sitting over the hot water for a few minutes. After waiting stir/whisk till the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat, and just like the caramel, allow to cool a little. Gently pour over the caramel, and return to the fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool completely.

To serve, use a hot knife (rest it in a mug of boiling water) to slice the tart into pieces.