No – Bake Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart

Description

I wanted to create a delicious dessert with ingredients available in the Lebanese market. The truth is, we need a few ingredients that are easily available to make something magical. And magical this one is. It’s the perfect dessert to make for a party, a dinner or a barbecue. Just make it a day before and leave it in the fridge. No need to deal with the stress of making a dessert on the same day. So this tart consists of three parts. First is the shell, a no bake one where you just throw some ingredients in a food processor and boom, it comes together. Second comes the caramel which is the show stopper of this dessert. Sweet, salty and buttery, we cook it on the stove and it is ready in 20 minutes. Third is the chocolate ganache which is made like any other ganache, with the best chocolate you can find. Chop the chocolate and mix it with hot cream. Then we add just a little bit of butter to give it some richness and shine. That’s all, 1,2, and 3. Let’s get started shall we? We will start by making the caramel and set it aside. While it cools, we will make the crust. Then we will press the crust in a 26 – 28 cm tart pan and pour the caramel. While it rests in the fridge, we will make the chocolate ganache. Then we will pour it and refrigerate the tart for an hour. Then right before serving we add some sea salt flakes, or just #saltbae it in front of your guests!

No - Bake Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart

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Ingredients

  

Crust

• 180 g (33 biscuits) Gandour 555 biscuits. You can sub with any Marie biscuit, or even a digestive. If your cookies are on the sweeter side, forgo the sugar in the crust.
• 50 g (0.33 cup) blanched almonds - can sub with regular
• 170 g (0.75 cup) unsalted butter
• 30 g (3 tbsp) cocoa powder
• 25 g (2 tbsp) sugar

Salted Caramel

• 200 g (1 cup) sugar
• 90 g (0.4 cup) unsalted butter - i used french butter for a distinctive taste
• 120 ml (0.5 cup) whipping cream 35% fat
• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract
• 0.5 tbsp sea salt

Chocolate Ganache

• 180 g chocolate, anything in the 60% to 70% range is great. Remember the better the quality of the chocolate, the better your dessert will turn out
• 135 ml (0.5 cup + 1 tbsp) whipping cream 35% fat
• 15 g (1 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temp.
• Sea salt flakes for topping

Instructions

 

• To make the caramel: In a stainless steel saucepan, add the sugar and cook on medium high heat. Using a metal spoon, check for when the sugar begins to sweat on the bottom of the pan. When that happens, begin to mix, never leaving the stove for a second. Continue mixing until the sugar is all meted and its color is lightly golden, about 8 minutes. If you feel it’s getting dark and you still have some sugar parts that haven’t melted, take the pan off the fire and continue mixing. The heat in the melted sugar will dissolve them. Then bring it back to the fire and add the butter while mixing vigorously. Keep on mixing until the butter is completely melted. You will feel that the butter and sugar are separated, keep on mixing with a spoon until they are fully homogeneous, about 3 minutes. Then add the cream while continuing to mix, it will bubble and release steam. Simmer and boil for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the stove and add the vanilla and the salt. Set aside to cool.

  A note regarding the salt, the recipe suggests 0.5 ts sea salt. Start by adding 0.25 ts and add more gradually, not all salts are equal and better to under-salt and add, than to over-salt and ruin a batch. Sometimes sea salts are weak and i add about 0.75 tsp in that case. So start gradually and find the right salt level for you. If using table salt 0.25 tsp should be enough.
• To make the shell: On the stove, roast the almonds until golden. Melt the butter.
• Place all the shell ingredients (biscuits, almonds, butter, cocoa, sugar) in the food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles wet sand. The almond pieces will still be visible and it gives the shell a beautiful texture. Spread the mix in the bottom of a tart pant compressing it with the bottom of a cup, or with your fingers. Pour the salted caramel on the shell and make sure it covers the entire base. Refrigerate while you prepare the ganache.
• To make the ganache. Chop up the chocolate finely, the finer you chop the less chance it is of turning out grainy. Then heat the cream until it is steamy but not boiling. Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour it on top. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then mix with a spoon until it’s thick and glossy. Add the room temperature butter, and continue mixing until it melts and disappears. Pour the chocolate ganache on top of the caramel spreading it out evenly with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
• Refrigerate the tart for at least an hour (or overnight). Take it out, sprinkle with sea salt flakes (or crushed sea salt) and serve. Pairs nicely with ice cream. From experience, it tastes even better the next day. If you want clean cuts, make sure it is well chilled, also clean the knife with a tissue before you cut the next slice. Sahtein.