Salted caramel is encased in chocolate pastry and topped with a gooey chocolate topping. This salted caramel chocolate tart is the ultimate in decadent.
I know cakes are the usual birthday fare, and as much as I love cakes I didn't actually feel like a cake for my birthday today. I had my eye on the Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart recipe in Rachel Allen's [amazon_link id="0007309031" target="_blank" ]Entertaining at Home[/amazon_link] for some time but had put off making it. Mainly because my fiance doesn't like salted caramel and there is no point making such a decadent recipe just for me, however with it being my birthday I decided if you can't make exactly what you want and stop worrying about everyone else on your birthday when can you? So here today is my take on Rachel Allen's Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart.
I only made a couple of slight changes to Rachel Allen's recipe. Firstly I decided to make mini tarts. I love miniature foods, and well, it seems all the more decadent to me to be able to eat a whole mini tart than a slice of a bigger tart.
Secondly, I decided to go with a chocolate shortbread base, and for this, I used the ultra reliable Dorie Greenspan's recipe from Baking. What I love about this tart base is that no rolling is required. Simply press into the tart tin and freeze for 30 minutes before baking and you have an ultra crumbly chocolatey base.
As much as I wanted to wait until today for my first bite of these tarts I just couldn't. The allure of salted caramel is far too strong for me to resist, and I was telling myself I was taste testing them to make sure they would be ok for today, and indeed they are more than ok. Delicious, decadent, and ultra rich. Sadly despite my lustful thoughts of demolishing a whole mini tart, I was outdone and could not conquer it all in sitting. That didn't stop my fiance, though, despite his protestations of not liking salted caramel. 🙂
While I didn't make an actual cake to celebrate my birthday today, I will be making one this weekend because my parents are coming to visit on Sunday, for a week, and I haven't actually spent any time with them around my birthday since I was 18 years old. So I thought a belated birthday cake would be the perfect thing to celebrate the occasion.
I have to say I've also been a little bit spoiled today by my fiance, as he does every birthday in fact. I still remember my first birthday we spent together. I happened to mention that we had a silly family tradition when my brother and I were little of having Fruit Loops for breakfast on our birthday. While I won't say my parents were strict with our food, my brother and I weren't allowed sugary cereals for breakfast, except twice a year - on our birthdays and Christmas - and for each occasion we would choose the most sugar laden cereal we knew of, being Froot Loops. I'd completely forgotten I'd told my fiance this fact, but low and behold, when my birthday came around he had organised a box of Froot Loops. At the time I couldn't stop laughing as I thought it was so funny he remembered.
Firstly for my birthday today he gave me the most adorable dress I'd had my eye on for quite some time (which I will be wearing out to dinner tonight) and the most adorable card, full of romantic words complete with a puppy with a birthday cupcake on his head on the front. I was also spoiled with his special pancakes for breakfast. He doesn't cook often, which he attributes to the blog, but when he does it always feels so special.
While the Fruit Loops tradition has gone by the wayside, now each birthday is celebrated with champagne, and my fiance cooking breakfast, along with a dinner out because apparently I'm not allowed to cook dinner on my birthday.
So tell me, do you have any silly or not so silly birthday traditions?
Recipe
Ingredients
- CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD TART DOUGH:
- 1 ¼ cups of plain all purpose flour
- ¼ cup of cocoa powder
- ¼ cup of icing sugar confectioners
- ¼ tsp of salt
- 128 g of cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg yolk
- SALTED CARAMEL:
- 225 g of caster sugar
- 75 ml of water
- 100 g of butter
- 100 ml of cream
- 1 tsp heaped of sea salt flakes
- CHOCOLATE LAYER:
- 100 g of caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 250 g of 70% cocoa chocolate broken into pieces
- 150 g of butter cut into cubes
Instructions
- To make the tart dough, combine the flour, cocoa, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter resembles the size of peas. Stir the egg yolk to break it up and add a little bit of the egg yolk and pulse to combine. Repeat until all of the egg yolk is added. Then process the dough in 10 second bursts until the dough forms clumps. Turn out the dough and knead lightly to incorporate the remaining dry ingredients, where necessary.
- Press the dough into a 23cm (9 inch) deep loose bottomed tart tin or 8 mini tart tins. Freeze the tart bases for 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius (375 fahrenheit) and line with foil and pie weights and bake for 15 minutes, remove the weights and bake for a further 5 minutes. Set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.
- To make the salted caramel place the sugar and water in a medium sized saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and then add the butter. Stir until the butter melts and then increase the heat to medium and allow the mixture to cook until it reaches a light toffee colour, around 15 minutes. Add the cream and sea salt, stir to combine and then cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit).
- For the chocolate layer, gently melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted mix to combine and set aside while you prepare the remainder of the filling. Combine the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitter with a paddle attachment and whisk until light and creamy. Add a small amount of the chocolate to the mixture and whisk to combine, to temper the eggs and prevent them from curdling, before adding the remaining chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
- To assemble the tarts pour the caramel into the base of the tart tin, or divide evenly between the mini tart tins if using, and then top with the chocolate mixture. Place on a baking tray (to stop any overflowing caramel making a mess in your oven) and bake for 20 minutes for the large tart and 10 to 12 minutes for mini tarts. The tart should almost be set with the center still a little wobbly. Allow to cool in the tin before removing to serve.
eddie ross says
What a fun tradition. Those tarts look simply delicious and that dress is so cute. Happy belated birthday from both of us.xo E + J
Suzanne says
Perfect choice for a birthday indulgence! Love that you were treated special by the one you love. Happy Birthday to you...and many more 🙂
Connie says
Oh my, this looks amazing!
Sarah says
Happy Birthday! Those tarts look absolutely amazing 🙂
Liren says
Happy Birthday! Ah, so the celebration has been decadent, yay! These tarts are lovely, but I just love the Fruit Loops tradition even more 🙂 You're fiancé is doing a great job with the spoiling 🙂 The dress is adorable!
Maya@Foodiva's Kitchen says
Happy birthday! Anything with salted caramel will have me whipping out my dessert fork for a taste :). I think your Froot Loops story and tradition is really sweet, and many plus points to your fiance for remembering it!
delicieux says
Thanks Maya 😀
Daisy@Nevertoosweet says
Belated Happy Birthday 🙂 Sorry Jennifer I've been away and haven't had time to read this post so I didn't know it was your birthday! But i'm sure you had an amazing day because your fiance will spoil you rotten! That's so sweet of him to remember!I absolutely LOVE salted caramel 🙂 Who says you need a birthday cake to celebrate your bday hahaha i saw these tarts can even be better 😛 Thanks for sharing!
delicieux says
Thanks for the birthday wishes Daisy 😀 You are so sweet.
Martyna @ WholesomeCook says
Happy Birthday again for Friday Jennifer! Sounds like you had a wonderful day, Fruit Loops et al, and your tarts look gorgeous! I like the mini versions too.
delicieux says
Thank you so much Martyna 😀 I did indeed have a wonderful day.
Antonia says
The pastry for the salted tarts was it heavy or crispy crumbly. I think if the pastry is too heavy it takes away fro the filling. They look great though. I'm keen to try them. Agree with the mini idea as well.
delicieux says
Hi Antonia,The pastry was crumbly. I also pressed it out rather thin as I didn't want it to distract from the tart. 😀
Carole says
This looks and sounds amazing!
Tracy says
Am I missing something? The recipe says to pour the caramel into the tin and bake it, but then makes no mention of baking the chocolate cake layer? Do I bake the caramel in the tart case and then wait for it to cool and then cook the chocolate layer? For how long? Many thanks, can't wait to try it, but need this last bit of information!
delicieux says
Hi Tracy, sorry, for the delay in getting back to you. I've clearly missed a step in the recipe. I've updated it now, but what you need to do is pour the chocolate layer over the caramel and then bake for 20 minutes for a large tart or 10 to 12 minutes for mini tarts. I hope you enjoy them 😀