Last Saturday we finally got around to celebrating Hijiri's birthday. Belated though it was, we had a great time eating, shopping and eating again.
The gals came over for a casual lunch of good French baguettes and a platter of sandwich fixings including ham, chicken, cheese, tomato and lettuce. B also contributed to the lunch with a collection of divine scones (cheese, white chocolate and cherry, and chocolate).
The surprise birthday activity? A kitchen store crawl! We visited Williams Sonoma, Ming Wo, Cookworks and Gourmet Warehouse. The weather was grand, the company even better and the activity was loads of fun. After crawling for four hours we returned to my house for dessert.
I wanted to make something the birthday girl would like and knowing that she loves the classic sweet and salty combo, I decided to make a salted caramel chocolate tart. A quick Google search later, I chose a recipe to try.
This tart is easy to boot and I'll definitely be making it again. It is essentially three components: crust, salted caramel and chocolate batter and they come together quickly although it creates more dirty dishes than I'd like. I suspect doing parts of the tart ahead of time (crust and salted caramel) would solve this issue.
Sweet, salty, chocolaty and not photogenic.
Notes and Recipe
- serves ~6 people who like seconds, ~ 10-12 people who don't
- excellent both at room temp and slightly chilled
- great make-ahead dessert
- Valrhona cocoa powder + Callebaut chips = Oh My Stars
- my version is heavily adapted
Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart adapted from BBC Good Food
Crust
- crust is very well behaved and works great with room temp butter
- no need to dirty the food processor, just rub the butter into the dry ingredients with fingers
- chill the crust for 30 min in the freezer
- aluminum ring to "hold [the sides] up as it cooks" is not necessary
Caramel
- let sugar turn amber first, then add the butter and cream
- will try using less butter; some of it pooled (eww)
- will try using only half or three-quarters of the caramel; using the full amounts called for made the tart slightly too sweet
- add 3-4 big pinches of fleur de sel to the caramel
After Assembled
- bake on a lined baking sheet; caramel went all over the place
- left the tart in the warm-but-turned-off oven after the second bake for an additional 15 minutes
- gave it a good chill and all was well
