Salted Caramel Tart

If you love chocolate and salted caramel, then this salted caramel chocolate tart is for you. The caramel filling is made with condensed milk, so it's rich, creamy and decadent. And, it's sandwiched between two layers of dark chocolate ganache. This salted caramel tart is a perfect dessert to take with you to family and friends and impress them with your skills. They will think you slaved over this for hours, but in truth, it's easy peasy.

Table of Content

• About this tart
• Ingredients and substitutes
• Step by step instructions
• Tips for making the perfect caramel tart
• Frequently asked questions
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe
• Join the conversation

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I'm not kidding when I say you can impress family and friends with this caramel tart. I recently took this with me when I visited the in-laws, and the rave reviews made me feel like a pro chef.

Everybody kept raving about how rich and creamy the caramel filling was, and how velvety and soft the chocolate layer was, and how perfect the salt balanced it all. My homemade shortcrust pastry was perfect too. I must admit, it was so nice to see how the tart was enjoyed. Definitely worth all the extra effort.

About this tart

This tart has three components - The tart shell, the caramel, and the ganache.

• The shortcrust pastry tart - Today, I am using the rich shortcrust pastry with the creaming method. But, you can also use the sweet shortcrust pastry with the crumble method. I have step-by-step tutorials and videos for both these. Alternatively, if you want to make this a no-bake tart, you can use the cookie-crust tart shell.
• The caramel layer - Today, I am using my recipe for creamy caramel filling, which works beautifully as a filling for cakes, pies, tarts or desserts. It is creamier than a traditional caramel sauce, which has a slight bitterness to it from the caramelized sugar. This one uses condensed milk, so the texture and flavor are richer and velvety.
• The chocolate layer - Chocolate ganache is made with chocolate and cream, which gives a wonderfully rich and creamy layer over and below the caramel. We use ganache instead of plain melted chocolate because ganache stays softer and can be cut into beautiful slices. Plain melted chocolate over the caramel will set brittle and crack into pieces giving us messy slices.

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Ingredients and substitutes

• Condensed milk - You can use canned or homemade condensed milk to make this creamy caramel filling. I have the recipe for both the traditional homemade sweetened condensed milk or how to make condensed milk in 5 minutes.
• Chocolate - I have used 70% dark chocolate for this recipe. Personally, I love using a higher percentage of cocoa in my chocolate (over 80% too). The caramel is sweet, so the dark chocolate does a great job of cutting down on the sweetness and works beautifully with the sprinkle of rock salt. You can use anything from 60% or higher, but whatever cocoa percentage you use, make sure the chocolate is good quality chocolate that you enjoy eating. Nothing is worse than to ruin your dessert with poor quality ingredients. Please do not use baking or compound chocolate, they taste awful and ruin rich desserts like this caramel tart.
• Whipping cream - Use a good, high percentage of cream when making the ganache. This will give you a beautifully rich and velvety finish.

Homemade or ready-made short-crust pastry

I am using homemade rich shortcrust pastry with the creaming method. And yet, you can also use my sweet shortcrust pastry with the classic cutting method. Alternatively, you can use a store-bought shortcrust pastry that is easily available in any supermarket these days. You can find these ready to roll or already prebaked.
For ready to roll pastry – follow my method – roll and line the pastry tart. Bake it with pie weight for 20 minutes then without pie-weight until it’s golden brown.

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Step by step instructions

Prepare tart shell

• Cream butter and sugar for just a minute until well combined.
• Add the vanilla, salt and egg yolk – and combine well.
• Lastly, fold the flour – fold until combined.
• Make a disc and wrap in plastic/cling wrap.
• Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours until firm to roll.
• Dust the work surface with flour.
• Open the dough and roll carefully from the center out turning as you go.
• Use your tart pan as a guide to know how big you need it.
• Transfer the dough to the tart pan.
• Gently press the dough into the tart pan making sure to press down into the shape of the pan.
• Trim the excess dough at the edges with a rolling pin, or your thumb.
• Chill the tart shell for a minimum of 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven at 190 C/ 375F.
• Line the chilled dough with parchment paper or foil.
• Fill the inside of the shell with pie weights.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the edges are lightly starting to brown.
• Remove the baking/parchment paper and pie weight.
• Continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes more until lightly golden.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Prepare caramel filling

• Place brown sugar, golden syrup, and butter in a heavy-based saucepan.
• Let come to a boil.
  Reduce heat and cook until the butter and sugar are melted.
  Continue to cook until the mixture becomes darker in color.
• Add the condensed milk and let come to a boil on low heat again.
• Cook on low for about 5 minutes stirring constantly.
• The mixture will get thicker.
• Add vanilla - stir to combine.
• Set aside to cool slightly before you pour into a mason jar or fill a tart...
• Enjoy!

Prepare ganache

• Break the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl.
• Pour cream over the chocolate.
• Place the bowl in the microwave for a min on high.
• Stir well until you have a smooth ganache.
• If necessary – continue to heat in the microwave at 30-sec intervals until you have a smooth mix.

Assemble

• Spread half the chocolate ganache over the cooled tart shell.
• Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Then, pour the caramel filling over the set chocolate ganache.
• Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle half of the rock salt.
• Next, pour the remaining chocolate ganache over the caramel filling.
• Chill for another 15 minutes.
• Finally, sprinkle the remaining rock salt.
• Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

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Tips for making the perfect caramel tart

1. Plan the tart and various steps in advance so you can give enough chilling time in between layers.
2. All three components on this caramel tart can be made ahead of time. The caramel filling, ganache as well as tart shell can be made up to 3 days ahead of time.
3. You can add some more sea salt flakes to the caramel. But if you sprinkle on top, the salt won't dissolve easily adding another layer of flavor to the caramel.
4. It is very easy to get carried away when sprinkling the sea salt flakes, but less is more. So don't make it too salty.
5. Serve this tart at room temperature not chilled. The caramel and ganache both taste better when they are soft at room temperature rather than set firm when chilled.
6. This is a rich and indulgent tart, so not everybody can eat big portions. Therefore, I highly recommend serving smaller slices and letting people have seconds.

Frequently asked questions

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Printable Recipe