Chocolate Tart with Caramel Mousse

I was looking to make something a little bit showy. For years I have been saving recipes from magazines – remember magazines? Well, I have a huge stack of little ripped pages with all of these desserts and dinners I want to try “some day.” Rather like all of the books I have on my “read in my spare time” shelves. In this case though, I actually used one of those recipes. The original for this chocolate tart with caramel mousse came from Ladies Home Journal and I made some adaptations to make it my own.

Table of Contents

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For the Crust

6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa

For the Mousse
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1 pkg (1/4 oz) unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup roughly chopped, quality semi sweet chocolate
1/4 tsp flake sea salt or Himalayan pink sea salt

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Preheat the oven to 325°

1. Make the crust. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. In the bowl of a mixer cream butter and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add yolk, vanilla, and salt and blend. In a small bowl combine flour and cocoa; add to mixer and mix until just combined.

2. Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a 9-by-9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. I used a round tart pan because that is what I had and it worked fine. Pierce crust with a fork. Freeze 20 min, then bake until firm, 20 to 22 min. Cool completely.

3. For the mousse, whip cream to soft peaks. Cover and reserve in fridge.

4. Place egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. In a small bowl sprinkle gelatin over 6 tbsp water to soften.

5. In a large saucepan combine the sugar with cup water. Cook over medium-high heat, swirling pan occasionally until sugar is a deep amber, about 10 min. It can turn from amber to burnt in a second so watch it! Remove from heat and carefully stir gelatin into hot caramel (caramel will bubble vigorously). With the mixer on high speed, gradually pour hot caramel into egg yolks. Continue whipping until mixture is room temperature and has doubled in size, 5 to 7 min. Fold reserved whipped cream into caramel and pour into cooled crust. Chill tart until firm, 1 to 2 hr.

6. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and spread in a thin layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea or Himalayan pink sea salt and let set.

Before serving, decorate tart with shards of the chocolate bark.

How Was the Chocolate Tart with Caramel Mousse?

I have no blessed clue. Like so many of the things I bake around here it went off with the hubby for a meeting. Nothing came back home with him so I assume it was well enjoyed. Actually he told me that everyone was raving about how tasty it was so there is that. I did lick the bowl from the caramel mousse and I can tell you that had a lovely flavor.

This is a dessert that looks super fancy but is really not that difficult to put together. It’s rather versatile too if you think about it; you can make any kind of tart crust, fill with your choice of mousse and those chocolate shards do all of the dress up. I’m thinking a strawberry mousse would be amazing.