Caramel chocolate tart

I picked up this month's edition of Gourmet Traveller for one reason only - the front cover. Yes I am that shallow. But I am now in the process of making the chocolate caramel tart that tempted me so.

I am just waiting for the chocolate to get to room temperature, but I can already tell you it's been a bit of a debacle. It is a tedious and time consuming recipe because there are four parts to it and lots of 'waiting' required. But on top of that my caramel layer didn't work so I had to throw out my first attempt and rather than have a second attempt, I completely substituted the caramel recipe with another.

Anyway here it is (with two recipes for the caramel layer because I am pretty certain the failure was something I did wrong as opposed to the fault of the recipe).

Top layer
165gm dark chocolate chopped
1/4 cup pouring cream
40gm unsalted butter, softened
Whipped cream to serve (optional)

Shortcrust pastry
1 3/4 cups plain flour
60gm caster sugar
180gm unsalted butter, chilled and chopped

Caramel
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup thickened cream
70gm butter, chopped

Chocolate mousse
200gm dark chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup thickened cream
2 tbsp caster sugar

For the pastry:

Process flour and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add 2 tbsp chilled water and process until mixture just comes together.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface, form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 190C. Roll out pastry to 5mm thick on a lightly floured surface, line a 26cm diameter tart tin with the pastry and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Blind bake for 20mins (this means cover the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and fill with weights), then remove paper and weights and bake until golden (another 8-10mins). Cool.

For the caramel:

Combine sugar and 250ml water in a heavy based saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and cook, brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush if sugar crystals form, until mixture is deep golden (10-15mins).

Remove from heat, add cream and butter and stir to combine (be careful as mixture will spit).

Pour into pastry base and refrigerate until firm (1-2 hours).

For the mousse layer:

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Cool to room temperature then add yolks, stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk cream until soft peaks form and set aside.

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and continue whisking until combined. Fold a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold a third of the cream. Repeat until all combined. Spoon over the cooled caramel layer and smooth out. Refrigerate until firm (2-3 hours).

Top layer:

Combine chocolate and cream in a small saucepan, stir over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat and add butter and stir to combine. Cool to room temperature, then spread in an even layer over mousse. Refrigerate until set (30-40mins).

*The caramel recipe I actually used was:
1 cup brown sugar
300ml thickened cream
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
60gm butter, chopped

Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until boiling. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2mins.



P.S. More frustrating than making this tart (which was worth the effort.. believe me), was taking this photo. I couldn't take the photo until after the tart was cut, I couldn't cut the tart until the guests arrived and it was time for dessert. So, the photo was taken in very bad light conditions and I should've changed lenses but I didn't. The result is that I don't have one photo of the tart that I am happy with...oh well, eat more tart I suppose.

N.B. This post was written over two days, hence the change in 'tense' through the text. And in fact I actually completed the tart over two days too.