{TWD} Salted Pecan Caramel Chocolate Tart

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart, which combines chocolate, caramel and peanuts. Despite the fact that Snickers bar is the most popular candy bar around, I've learned long ago that I'm not one of those millions who like chocolate and peanuts together. The peanuts' crunch seemed to be an integral part of the tart (it's in the name after all) so I wanted a worthy substitute.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- We've used the combination of those three flavors once before since I've been in TWD, for brownie caramel cake that was chosen almost exactly a year ago. That time I substituted macadamia nuts and toffee bits for the peanuts.

- I wanted to emphasize the salted edge of the caramel, so I decided to use roasted salted pecans from Trader Joe's. The best part is that they are already chopped in tiny pieces, just perfect for adding crunch to the tart.

- There are several components in this tart, all of which need to be prepared and chilled in advance of assembling the tart.

- I was a little bit wary about over-handling the tart dough, and unsure about how high to press the dough in my tall tart pan, so I think my crust could have been thinner/tall, thus holding more filling.

- I don't have a ton of caramel-making experience (and truth be told the idea of making caramel is still pretty scary to me) so this skillet method was new and different for me. Because there is a relatively small quantity of sugar in the skillet I had to tilt the pan to measure the temperature, even though my digital thermometer has the sensor in the tip. One thing I did that really helped: I held my skillet in the air above the burner, checking the temperature – and lowered it to the burner at intervals to better control the heat.

- In the recipe Dorie gives both time and temperature for the last step of the caramel. I was glad to have the thermometer; mine reached the correct temp in half the time – just over a minute.

- My caramel cooked to a deep amber, producing a very strong toffee flavor

- When I assembled the tart, I had too much ganache. I filled the tart shell as high as I dared, then froze the leftover ganache. I've learned that ganache in the freezer will never go to waste.

- For some reason the recipe is very specific: "refrigerate the tart for 30 minutes - no longer". I followed that exactly (I was afraid not to!) but my ganache ended up a bit soft. That just wasn't enough time for it to set properly. I was much happier with the texture of the piece I left in the fridge overnight:

the verdict:

The entire book group was enamored with this tart, and all the members were quite vocal (and quotable) in their reactions:

SF: "You taste this and it makes your toes tingle"

JT: "This is the taste of love"

AT: "The toffee notes are my favorite flavor"

HY: "This might be the best thing you've ever made"

Thanks to Carla of Chocolate Moosey for choosing this week's deliciousness! You can find the recipe for the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart, on Carla's tart post, or on pages 355-357 of Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.