When I cannot golf, I bake. On one hand, that is a good thing. My skills and knowledge are growing. On another hand the QC Cadre isn’t tired of my supplying them with baked goods. On someone else’s hand my muscles for playing golf are atrophying.
I recently received a set of perforated tart rings and a perforated silicon mat to bake the rings on. They all worked perfectly. Once baked, the tarts almost fell out of the rings.
QC asked for a chocolate covered caramel tart for her birthday. We spent her birthday day at the grands school talent show, then at a car dealership, during a severe rainstorm, and finally out with the family to a pizza birthday dinner. There was no time to fill the tarts, so I did them this morning.
CHOCOLATE CARAMEL TART
INGREDIENTS
Crust
• Unsalted Butter (room temp) 100g
• Salt a pinch
• Powdered Sugar 72g
• Almond Powder 20g
• Corn Starch 30g
• Eggs (room temp)36g
• Cake Flour 170g
Caramel
• 2 cups (424 g) granulated sugar
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup corn syrup
• ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, cut into 4-5 pieces
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
• 2 Tbl water
• 60g sugar
• 46g corn syrup (60ml)
• 52g condensed Milk (40ml)
• ¼ tsp agar agar
• 60g dark chocolate
METHOD
- Beat the room temp. butter lightly (add in salt).
- Sift in powdered sugar, almond powder and corn starch. Beat lightly. Add the room temp. eggs gradually and mix. Finally, add in the cake flour and mix well.
- Using a bench knife, “fraiser” the dough by repeated smearing portions of it on the table.
- Roll it out to 2mm/3mm thickness between parchment papers. (2mm thickness for 6~8cm diameter, 3mm thickness for 14~18cm thickness.
- Rest in the fridge for 1~2hrs
For perforated tart ring: - Cut it out into strips/discs. Disks equal to tart ring diameter, strips ~ ¾” wide and 2” longer than tart ring circumference, ~14.5” for a 4” tart ring. (4” x π + 2”)
- Coat the inside of the ring with butter. Position tart ring over a disk and place on a perforated mat.
- If the strips are too stiff to bend, warm slightly with your hands. Line the side of the tart ring with the disk. Glue any seams by warming with your finger.
- Trim top of strip with a knife
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Bake 3mm thick crust at 340⁰F for 15mins. (320⁰F for 2mm)
- If you are to bake the tart crust again after adding the almond cream, then bake 2-3mins less. (~12-13mins.)
For regular tart pan: - Cut it out into one big disc ~2” larger than tart pan
- Line the tart pan.
- Prick the bottom.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper and then pie weights.
- Bake 3mm crust at 340⁰F for 10mins, take the pie weights out, then bake for another 5 mins. (320⁰F for 2mm)
- If you want to apply egg wash the recipe is as follows: 10g Heavy Cream, 40g Egg yolk. Mix them well and strain it before use. Once the tart shell has cooled down completely, then brush them evenly and bake for ~10-12mins at 160℃.
For the caramel: - In a heavy bottomed saucepan (important so that the heat conducts evenly!), combine the sugar, water and corn syrup (try not to splash the mixture up on the sides of the pan). Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the mixture is a medium-dark amber color, tilting the pan just slightly every couple of minutes to swirl the mixture.
- Immediately remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the butter, cream and vanilla. The hot mixture will bubble vigorously. Stir to combine (don’t go too crazy scraping down the sides of the pan).
- Pour the caramel over the baked crust. Refrigerate until the caramel is set and no longer warm, 1-2 hours (make sure you set the tart on a really flat surface in the fridge or else it will set up tilted or uneven).
For the glaze: - Heat water, sugar, agar, corn syrup to boil to 220⁰F
- Add condensed milk and dark chocolate and blend with an immersion blender.
- Leave it overnight and use it the next day.
- Heat in the microwave to make it pourable
- Divide evenly among the tarts, rolling around to smooth out and cover each tart
aBatteredOldSuitcase 