Chocolate, Orange, and Caramel Tart
Yesterday I took a free Bake with a Legend class taught by Jane Beedle (season 7) for a Chocolate, Orange, and Caramel Tart. It’s not the first class I have taken from this company, see here. Also not the last as I am eying up several into the Fall and Winter. I generally enjoy them very much.
The flavors of this tart are just wonderful and the spiderweb decor is completely optional. One can just opt to stop with the chocolate ganache and then you have a dessert that can serve for any time of year. Or finesse the white chocolate any way you would like.
This Tart Class was scheduled for an hour and I think that was a titch problematic and did cause a few issues. For anyone who did not have some prior baking experience it would have been a real disaster. Even for me it was a bit of a fail – and heaven knows I bake. Nonetheless I managed to produce a tasty baked treat – it just looks a bit of a mess.
The problem arises from trying to bake a crust that hasn’t had time to firm up in the ‘fridge. So excuse the look of my tart and take the below recipe and allow some rest and cooling times for the tart dough and you will have a lovely treat. It can either make 8 small tarts or one large tart.
I’ve adjusted times in the recipe below to account for pastry rest times so that your result will be better – hopefully.
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Chocolate, Orange, and Caramel Tart
Serves 8 in one 8″ tart pan or 8 4″ tart pans
For the Pastry:
- 14 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- grated zest of 1/2 an orange
- Large egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
For the Salted Caramel:
- 5 TBS salted butter
- 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Ganache:
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- 1 cup heavy cream
- grated zest of 1/2 an orange
- 8.5 oz semi sweet chocolate
For the Decorations:
- 3.5 ounces white chocolate
- googly eyes
Make the Pastry:
- Place softened butter, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest into a bowl and beat until soft and well combined.
- Stir in the flour and bring together with a wooden spoon or your hands until you have a smooth(ish) dough
- Refrigerate for about an hour or longer if desired
Make the Tart Shell
- On a lightly floured surface roll the dough to about 1/16″ thick.
- Cut the pastry slightly larger than your tin or tins and carefully move the dough to the tin and fit to the pan. You can reroll the pastry as needed to fill any holes or tears.
- Refrigerate for about half and hour
- Preheat oven to 350
- Grease parchment paper for a large tart or cupcake cups for smaller tarts and place on the dough, add pie weights (or rice or beans) and bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes
- Remove the weights and papers and bake for another 5 minutes until the pastry is cooked and golden in color
- Set aside
Make Caramel:
- Put the butter, sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt into a medium saucepan
- Heat gently until the sugar and butter have completely dissolved.
- Gently bring to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the caramel has thickened. (Don’t worry if this takes longer than 8 minutes – it is dependent on the depth and width of your saucepan)
- Leave to cool a little and then pour into the cooked pastry.
Make the Ganache:
- In a saucepan add the cream and the orange zest and warm gently. Do not boil.
- When the caramel has set, place the broken up chocolate into a bowl.
- Heat the cream until it is hot but not boiling.
- Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for the chocolate to melt.
- Stir to make sure all of the chocolate has dissolved and you have a smooth, glossy mixture.
- Pour over the caramel on the tart.
To Decorate the Tart:
- Gently melt the white chocolate either in a microwave or in a bowl over gently simmering water.
- Place the white chocolate into a piping bag, cut the tip off and pipe three circles onto the tart – small, medium, and large.
- Use a toothpick to drag the chocolate from outside to inside, then inside to outside to make a spider web design.
- Add googly eyes if desired.
