Sunday, 28 March 2010

Malted Chocolate and Caramel Tart - Take 2

This tart looked, as the saying goes, like a right dog's breakfast! I made a real mess of the topping, which didn't work at all. The only reason I'm even mentioning it here is that I've cracked how to use the malted chocolate filling and dulce de leche together, and the tart tasted wonderful!

The recipe is one of Dan Lepard's, see here, that I've never managed to get right. At the end of my last attempt, I thought that perhaps using the chocolate filling on top of a layer of dulce de leche might work better than trying to 'gently swirl' the caramel mixture Dan uses into the chocolate. So this time, I baked the pastry case blind, and gently spread about 4 heaped tablespoons of dulce de leche onto the hot pastry, before pouring in the chocolate mixture.

This proved to be the right thing to do - but my mistake was trying to gild the lily with a swirl of pure dulce de leche as a topping. This caramelised during baking and sank into the chocolate mixture, leaving a swirly trench on top of the tart. However, the fudgy malted chocolate on top of a layer of dulce de leche worked really well and tasted rich and decadent. Definitely the way to go forward.

5 comments:

Lucie said...

This looks great Suelle, I love malted flavours, so this really appeals. Lucie x

Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial said...

Ah yes, I've been caught out before with the swirly trench too, Suelle. Nice to know that the chocolate and DDL go well together though, thanks! :)

Choclette said...

Ooh, I love the sound of the malteness of this tart. I've just gone back and had a look at the previous one you made. They both look good, but this one looks much richer. Reckon I'm going to have to try this at some point - though pastry always puts me off.

Alicia Foodycat said...

I actually think the swirly trench looks like a nice design feature in this picture!

Suelle said...

Accentuate the positive, Foodycat! LOL!