Chocolate almond tarts with salted dulce de leche

15/06/2015

It didn’t stop with the fresh almond-lemon meringue tarts I baked last time. There was a bowl of homemade dulce de leche sitting in my fridge, I always have a (not so secret) stash of dark chocolate on hand and my head was still filled with recipe ideas that couldn’t make it to the cookbook anymore. The only logical thing to do was to bake some more tarts. Makes perfect sense, right?

These tarts with chocolate almond cream, salted dulce de leche and dark chocolate were the end result. And I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you how ridiculously delicious they are? Crispy crust, slightly sweet chocolate cream, crazy addictive salted caramel… These are so good, it’s not even normal.

Serves 5

INSTRUCTIONS

For the crusts:
½ cup + 1/3 cup (100 g) flour
1/3 cup (40 g) icing sugar
2 tbsp + 1 tsp (15 g) almond meal
pinch of salt
2.1 oz / 4 tbsp (60 g) cold butter, in small cubes
1 egg, beaten
extra: 5 tartlet rings (3¼ inch/ 8cm)*

For the tarts:
1.75 oz / 3.5 tbsp (50 g) butter, room temperature
¼ cup (50 g) fine sugar
½ cup (50 g) almond meal
2 tbsp cacao powder
1 egg
5 tbsp dulce de leche**
course sea salt
0.7 oz (20 g) dark chocolate, chopped

* If you don’t have any tartlet rings, you could also make these tarts in a muffin tray. In that case you can probably make six tarts.

** you can use store-bought dulce de leche or make it yourself by simmering a unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 3-4 hours in boiling water. Make sure the can is covered with water all the time, so it can’t explode.

INSTRUCTIONS

For the crust:
1. Sieve the flour, icing sugar, almond meal and salt into a bowl. Add the cubed butter and rub it with the flour between your fingers until the mixture resembles a crumbly dough.

2. Add a bit of the beaten egg and knead until a dough ball forms. Too sticky? Add extra flour. Too dry? Add extra egg. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour until firm.

3. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and place the tartlet rings on top. Remove the firm dough from the fridge and knead quickly.

4. Dust your working surface with flour and roll out the dough until it’s about ¼ inch (0.5 cm) thick. Cut out five rounds, line the tart rings and remove excess pastry. Refrigerate until use.

For the tarts:
5. Preheat the oven to 350F / 170C (fan oven) or 400F / 200C (conventional oven).

6. Beat the butter in a bowl until soft. Add the sugar, almond meal and cacao and mix well until combined. Add the egg and stir until you’ve got a smooth cream.

7. Scoop the cream into the prepared tart cases. Bake for 17-20 minutes. Leave to cool and remove the rings.

8. Add a generous pinch of sea salt to the dulce de leche and spoon this mixture on top of each tart. Sprinkle over the dark chocolate.