Salted Caramel & Milk Chocolate Tarts

• Refrigerated

  • 1 Egg

• Baking & Spices

  • 150 g Cake flour
  • 30 g Cocoa powder, Dutch-processed dark
  • 1 1/4 tsp Fleur de sel
  • 50 g Flour
  • 70 g Icing sugar
  • 220 g Milk chocolate
  • 430 g Sugar
  • 2 Vanilla beans
  • 1/8 tsp Vanilla beans, ground

• Nuts & Seeds

  • 30 g Almonds, ground

• Dairy

  • 170 g Butter
  • 560 g Cream
  • 125 g Whipping cream

• Desserts

  • 8 g Gelatin

• Liquids

  • 40 g Water

Found on ironwhisk.com

Description

Ingredients

• 90g butter, softened
• 70g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 30g ground almonds (i.e. almond flour)
• ¼ teaspoon fleur de sel (can substitute with kosher salt)
• 50g flour
• 150g cake flour
• 125g whipping cream
• 2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
• ⅛ teaspoon ground vanilla beans (optional)
• 400g sugar
• 80g butter
• 1 teaspoon fleur de sel (can substitute with kosher salt)
• 8g gelatin
• 40g water
• 560g cream
• 30g sugar
• 220g milk chocolate, melted and in a large bowl
• ~30g Dutch-processed (dark) cocoa powder (you can use regular cocoa powder, but the colour will not be as nice)

Directions

• Combine the butter and the icing sugar until smooth, using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer if you have one. Do not beat rapidly. The goal is not to incorporate air when making the dough.
• Add in the egg, and beat to combine.
• Add the almonds, fleur de sel, and all-purpose flour. Beat to combine.
• Add the cake flour. Beat to combine.
• Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap with plastic, wrap, and place to chill in the fridge until cold (around an hour).
• Roll out the dough to the thickness you desire (being careful not to go to thin or the tarts will collapse), and line buttered mini-tart pans. You can use buttered, round cookie cutters on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet if you would like to make tarts with straight edges.
• Place in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C).
• Once tarts are chilled, poke holes into the bottom of the tarts with a fork to prevent air bubbles from forming. Fill the tart with beans or rice (beans are easier to take out later) to prevent the bottoms from rising (you can reuse these beans in the future for the same purpose).
• Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until browned. Remove the beans, and cool the tart shells to room temperature.
• Bring the cream, vanilla beans, and ground vanilla beans (if using) to a simmer over low heat. Turn off heat, cover, and let stand for one hour to infuse.
• Place a large pot over a medium flame (large is important or else the caramel will overflow and you’ll burn yourself ) to caramelize the sugar.
• Sprinkle with some of the sugar to form a thin coat on the bottom of the pot. As the sugar melts, sprinkle more sugar in the areas where it is melting. Avoid stirring the pan, and shake and swirl it instead during the process. Continue adding sugar to the areas where it is melting until all the sugar is added.
• Cook until it reaches what Stella describes as a “foxy” colour, between light and dark brown—so I guess just “brown”. If you see clumps of sugar, then shake the pan. Do not stir.
• Pour in a splash of the cream as soon as the sugar reaches the proper colour. Stir it in. It will bubble, but as long as you use a large pot you should be fine.
• Continue adding the cream (and the vanilla beans) gradually and stirring.
• Then, stir in the butter and the fleur de sel.
• Strain into a container to remove clumps of sugar and vanilla beans, and then pour evenly into the tart shells.
• Set in the fridge to cool overnight, or else the caramel will be too liquid to continue.
• Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and stir to combine. Let sit for five minutes.
• Bring the cream and sugar to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once simmering, remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin.
• Pour the cream mixture into the melted chocolate and whisk until smooth.
• Place in the fridge overnight to set.
• Take the milk chocolate cremeux and whisk until smooth (you can use a stand mixer, if you wish).
• Add cremeux to each tart and scrape off excess with an offset spatula so you have a smooth surface.
• Using a medium-large round piping tip, pipe a spiral of milk chocolate cremeux onto each tart, starting from the outside. You can also decorate with cremeux another way, if you wish.
• Using a small sieve, dust with the cocoa powder. For Aoki’s tarts, he dusts opposite quarters of the tart presumably by holding a piece of parchment paper above the non-dusted quarters while dusting.