Salted Caramel "Tarte au Chocolat"

There are two things that I could never say no to and they are "chocolate" and "caramel". Include both of them into a delicious chocolate short crust, I am in heaven.

Chocolate Pȃte Sablé

"Sablé" in French refers to the sandy texture which is very much so with this short crust pastry. The chocolate short crust is one of the most versatile pastry to use. It does not expand as much when baked due to the minimal mixing time that reduces any aeration in the pastry and it has a short and crumbly texture when bite in to, hence the name "short crust". It is perfect to be rolled out in to discs as bases for individual mousse cakes, sandwich two together with a ganache filling or coarsely crushed to make crumbles for toppings.

There are so many things you can do with the base recipe. You can add some spice in the recipe and turn them in to a spice chocolate short crust and the variations are endless.

Chocolate

When you are making this tart and wants the best flavor, make sure that you use the best quality chocolate. I am using Callebaut's Madagascar Coverture Chocolate that has 67% Cacao but any other good quality dark chocolate will do.

RECIPE

The below recipe makes 1 x (24cm diameter x 3 cm depth) tart

Note: There will be some extra chocolate short crust pastry that you can use for mini tarts or chocolate sable cookies.

Chocolate Pate Sable (Short Crust)

155 g Icing Sugar

30 g Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

220 g Plain Flour

55 g Almond meal

4 g Salt

50 g/ 1 u Whole Egg

95 g Unsalted Butter (Cold but not Solid hard)

Method:

1. Place the sugar, cocoa powder, almond meal, salt and plain flour into stand mixer bowl with a paddle attachment.

2. Mix to evenly distribute the ingredients then add in the cold but not solid hard butter into the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until the mix resembles fine bread crumbs with no large lumps of butter.

3. Add in the egg and continue to mix until the mix just comes together and form in to a smooth dough.

4. Transfer the dough onto the workbench and gently knead until smooth, flatten it slightly then wrap with cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.

5. When the dough have rested, remove from the fridge to bring to room temperature. Lightly dust the workbench with some plain flour, then roll the sable to roughly around 30-40 mm in thickness and and cut a circle at least 3 cm wider than the tart ring.

Note: Ensure to check the base of the pastry while rolling so that it does not stick to the bench. Use a ruler to help with easy release, dust more flour underneath before continue rolling. Alternately, roll between two parchment paper.

6. Roll the sable over the rolling pin and gently unroll it over into the tart ring. Press the edges down, with some excess still hanging above the rim of the tart rings.

Wrap in cling film and place it back into the fridge to rest for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, pre heat the oven to 180°C.

7. Remove the chilled lined pastry, trim off the excess, place a parchment paper on top of the pastry and fill with baking rice.

Place into the oven and par bake for 20 minutes in the pre heated oven.

8. Remove the tart rings from the oven and let it cool at room temperature before removing the paper and baking rice. Return the tart shells into the oven and continue to bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it cool and set aside until ready to use. If the base of the tart shells seems to have puffed up, gently press down flat before it fully cools.

Note: Excess Chocolate Short Curst can be combined, chilled and re rolled for other uses.

Salted Caramel

120 g Thickened Cream / Pure Cream

90 g Unsalted Butter

200 g Castor Sugar

4 g Sea Salt Flakes

1. Place the cream into a saucepan and heat to a mere boil. Remove from heat and set aside ready to use.

2. In another clean pot or non stick deep pan, gently melt the sugar in three additions making sure that the sugar are fully melted before sprinkling in the next addition. Once all the sugar have melted, continue to heat the sugar until it starts to boil and turn into light golden in color.

3. Add the butter and salt to deglaze while whisking to combine, then slowly stream in the hot cream and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are well combined. Turn off the heat and pour the caramel over the baked and cooled chocolate short crust.

Note: Once all the cream have been added in to the caramel, turn off the heat and stir to fully combine the ingredients. Do not over cook the caramel as this can cause the caramel to harden too much.

Leftover caramel can be stored in a jar and in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Simply open the lid from the jar and place it over warm water in a pot to gently melt, then use as required.

Chocolate Filling

70 g Thickened Cream 35% Fat

70 g Full Cream Milk

30 g Castor Sugar

140 g Dark Madagascar Chocolate 67% Cocoa

50 g /1 u Whole Egg

20 g /1 u Egg Yolk

2 g Salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 170°C. Place the sugar, thickened cream and milk into a saucepan and heat it to 60°C.

2. Meanwhile gently heat the chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave or over the hot water bath and gently heat until just melted. The chocolate should be below 40°C.

3. Pour the warm milk over the melted chocolate and stir to combine. Check the temperature of the ganache. The ganache should be below 50°C at this point so as not to scramble the eggs then whisk in the egg, egg yolk and salt until well combined. Ensure not to incorporate too much air bubbles at this stage.

4. Pour the chocolate filling over the tart case on top of the salted caramel and place into the preheated and at the lowest part of the oven. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until it starts to slightly dome on the edges. (There should be around 1cm cm space between the edge of the tart shell and the chocolate filling at this point). Do not be tempted to ovet bake the filling.

Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool completely at room temperature.

Proceed to preparing the chocolate glaze.