Daring Bakers Get Tarty

updated with photos...

This challenge marks my second month in the Daring Bakers’ Group and I must say that I am having a grand time baking and interacting with these marvelous bakers! In July we made Strawberry Mirror Cakes. This month two really talented bakers, Veronica of Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolour Kitchen, choose the recipe and we are all making Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tarts. (You can find the recipe on Veronica's and Patricia's blogs.)

The challenge for this month intrigued me. When I saw that it was a chocolate caramel tart, I thought yum. I love tarts – making and eating them – but I just never seem to fit them into my repertoire at home. So I was very excited to have the opportunity to finally prepare one. I was also estatic to finally attempt one of Eric Kayser’s recipes from Sweet and Savory Tarts .

Now milk chocolate is not something I typically bake with, often preferring darker varieties over the sweet chocolate, but as a Daring Baker I was ready for this change. Paired with hazelnuts and caramel, however, this really shined. It is very similar to eating a big Milky Way bar, and I definitely devoured my fair share!

While it appeared complicated at first, it was mostly pleasant to bake this elegant and simple tart. The tart is based on three components – a layer of milk chocolate mousse over a creamy caramel in a chocolate shortbread crust – that can be spread out over several days if necessary, plus an optional caramel decoration. The recipe is very straightforward and, except for the crust, the tart presents no major obstacles. I started by cutting the recipe in half, as it seemed like it would make a huge batch.

As with most tarts, this one begins with a crust as the base. The tart pastry consists of butter, confectioners’ sugar, ground hazelnuts, cinnamon, eggs, cake flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. The recipe really called for the crust to be prepared in the food processor, but I decided to try this using my stand mixer, as I do with most crusts, and it worked out well. However, when it came time to roll out the tart dough, I ran into a few problems. I let the dough chill and rest in the refrigerator overnight, but the dough was quite oily and sticky, which made for a horrible rolling experience. So, I stuck it back in the refrigerator to firm up a bit, but I still had to use more flour than I wanted to in order to roll it out. After a bit of work, I finally managed to line my rectangular tart pans with the dough, with plenty left over to make mini tarts, too. Next, I blind baked the tart shells (baked them with parchment paper filled with dried beans for weight) for 15 minutes.

While the tart shells cooled, I began the caramel layer. This particular recipe calls for a dry caramel, which means that you simply put sugar into a pot and slowly let it caramelize. I have and do often use this method, but for caramel sauces I usually prefer to use the wet method, beginning with a sugar and water mixture. The dry method can seem more difficult because you risk burning the dry sugar since the sugar colors much quicker than in the wet method.
When making caramel, it is important not to stir the sugar (and grime on your whisk or spoon can cause the sugar to crystallize), but to swirl the pan to evenly distribute heat and color. I let my caramel turn a fairly deep amber color before adding the cream and butter. It is also important that your cream be warm (nuking in the microwave works just fine) and the butter should be at room temperature, which helps them combine better with the hot caramel. Using cold cream will make the caramel seize and harden. While a seized caramel can be easily rescued by rewarming the mixture again, it is just best to incorporate your ingredients at an agreeable temperature to create a luscious, buttery-smooth caramel.

Once the caramel cooled, I added the eggs and flour to prepare for baking. Baking the caramel layer was a little more difficult – the edges set and over baked much faster than the center. I wanted to keep the caramel rather fluid and smooth, not lumpy as occurred if it was over baked (I unfortunately learned this upon baking my caramel on the larger tart). Anyhow, baking was a little easier with the smaller tarts and produced a creamy caramel layer.

On to the mousse – I must admit that I was shocked to see this recipe in Eric Kayser’s repertoire. This is not really a mousse, but more of a chocolate whipped cream. It was delicious nonetheless. The chocolate mousses I usually use incorporate egg yolks or whites for stability, but this set up a lot better than I expected. However, as whipped cream does not seem to last too long, the mousse did begin to weep and crack after a day in the refrigerator. You also shouldn’t keep the tart unrefrigerated for too long or else the mousse would start to melt, too. Another tip I found helpful when making the mousse was to 1st fold a little of the whipped cream into the chocolate, and then fold that mixture into the whippe cream. This prevents the melted chocolate from seizing when added into the cold cream.

And finally, the garnish – lovely shards of caramel. I had a little fun with this step. I used some of my leftover hazelnuts to make a sort of tasty hazelnut brittle. I also dipped a few whole hazelnuts into the hot caramel to make little crunchy caramel-coated hazelnuts. Yum!

woops i took a bite!

The Verdict – Overall, albeit very very sweet, the tart was quite a treat. A soft, buttery caramel, a crust that remained crisp, and a sumptuous chocolate “mousse” made for one tasty tart. Almost like a giant Milky Way candy bar. The finished tart also sliced very nicely after being chilled.

what to do with the leftovers...

This proved to be a great challenge, so thank you Veronica and Patricia! However, I think next time I would make the dough more chocolately, or perhaps even use a different dough recipe altogether, as this one was oily and difficult to roll. The caramel was absolutely lush and delicious, but I think I’d actually use a "real" chocolate mousse recipe that would hold up better at room temperature.

If you want to check out the other talented Daring Bakers tarts, and believe me, you do, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll. Happy Baking!


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