Tarty Daring Baker: Milk Chocolate & Caramel with Hazelnut Shortbread

Some of us are just dying for Fall,
that incredible time of the year when everything changes into the
promise of spiciness in the air, wind with a gentler and cool
persistence, and a welcome dampness I know I’ve missed.  Gentle folk,
start your ovens!  Woot!

When I saw this past month’s Daring Baker challenge, I thought, "All
righty then."  The rationale for the choice on the part of Veronica of Veronica’s Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen
made sense, as many ingredients are a challenge for some to find
depending on where they live in the world.  I would be so frustrated to
not be able to get an ingredient for one of our monthly challenges and
am completely and utterly spoiled living where I do.  When berries and
other types of produce are no longer available here, they’re quickly
imported from Chile, so they’re plentiful.  Of course, the prices
change a bit, or sales don’t happen as frequently, but at least it’s
all available.  Like I said — S-P-O-I-L-E-D.

Chocolate, caramel, and hazelnuts are the main ingredients for the
August challenge, so after quickly reviewing the steps for the recipe,
I set it aside and tentatively chose a day to make the tart somewhere
near the end of the month.  The key word here would be "end."
Hopefully not ON the day we are supposed to have our posts done.  Well,
best laid plans often don’t come to fruition as the weather has been an
issue for many of us, and who wants to turn on an oven?  Goodness, even
chocolate sounds less than inviting in the humidity and heat.
Mmm…but that tart did sound promising…

So procrastinate I did.  Big surprise.  But another odd thing
happened on the way to the completion of this challenge.  The Dog Days
of August really slowed down all the get togethers we’re accustomed to,
so I knew that when I baked this tart, my husband, son, and I were
going to be stuck with it.  You know what I mean — stuck with all the
calories.  Whatta way tah go, huh?  Sure, I could have sent it off to
work with my husband, but there’s a bit going on there, and sending
dessert just wouldn’t seem quite right.  And even though we’ve all had
a piece or two, the remnants — still half of the tart — are in the
refrigerator I use for "over flow."  Don’t ask about that right
now…It’s a dense dessert that could feed an army of people who need a
sliver of richness.  I supposed I should have considered freezing the
rest of it, but it would just sit in my freezer like so many other
things, accumulate frost, and then disappear in the build-up.  How
embarrassing to have to mention that.  And I couldn’t share with my
neighbors because, well, they aren’t quite that kind of neighbor.
"Helloooooo!  How are youuuuuu tonight?  And would you just love my
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart left overzzzzz?  Hmmmmm?"  No, that
wouldn’t fly.  So there it sits.  Waiting for its fate.

So on to the educative aspect of my blathering.  That would be the
"veracity" requirement of this blog. Please read knowing that none of
this constitutes any truly serious issue.  It’s shared with my tongue
firmly placed in my cheek and a wink for good measure — even if I’m
telling it like it is.  Sassy.

Oh, and if you’re just dying to see all the other Daring Baker tarts, the link is at the end of this post.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart
from Eric Kayser’s Sweet and Savory Tarts

The complete recipe can be found here, courtesy of Veronica, or here, courtesy of Patricia.

1.  I continue to struggle at times with the clarity of the directions for the recipes we make. 
Am I the only one?  P-R-O-B-A-B-L-Y.  Here’s a perfect example: With respect to the crust, the directions read,

"Line the baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes."

Now
when I read "line," I consider that means one should roll out the
pastry.  Roll.  You know, with a rolling pin.  (Picture a hair being
split at this point…) But this was shortbread crust.  Shortbread that
needed an extensive amount of refrigeration, and in my experience, one
doesn’t "roll" shortbread.  One "presses" it.  I surveyed the disk
(because a disk is easier to work with than a ball) after removing it
from the fridge, scrutinized the consistency of the dough and thought,
"No way, Ray," on the prospect of rolling, so promptly proceeded to
PRESS the into my square tart pan.  I expect that this was an
appropriate decision — and NOT CHEATING —  because all went well.  In
other words, I achieved a nice, sturdy shortbread cookie-like crust for
my tart.

And then those hazel nuts.  Uh…Trader Joe’s was out.  So much for
being smug about getting whatever ingredients I need whenever I need
them.  I can usually count on TJ’s for hazel nuts, so this altered my
plans a bit.  Almond Meal maybe?  On to Whole Foods.  You do know what
that means, correct?  I raided the cheese department, plowed through
the olive bar, bought way too much produce (those cute little egg
plants that I still haven’t posted my recipe for…) and wine.  The
bill was mind-boggling.  And I almost forgot the hazel nuts. Do you
have any idea how pissed off I would have been?  When I found them, I
nearly purchased shelled nuts, already beginning a slow whine about
having to shell them — until I located shelled hazel nuts. Quite an
expensive excursion for this tart.

2.  Let’s discuss that caramel.  Yes?  I
am not a chef.  I am certainly not a pastry chef.  I am a cook.  And
although many will tell you I am an excellent cook, I prefer to think
of myself as a pretty savvy recipe reader instead.  In that regard, I
have made caramel any number of ways with a variety of ingredients in
the recipes I’ve used over the years.  The idea of the "dry method" of
making the caramel didn’t faze me.  You make sure the pan is dry, put
the sugar in the pan and leave the damn thing alone.  Period.  You
resist the kings of darkness when they tell you to pick up that spoon
and stir.  You have to NOT listen to them.  Yes, if the caramel is
crystalizing up along the sides of the pan, a quick wash along the pan
with a wet pastry brush helps, but that isn’t always necessary.  So no
big deal on the caramel (and I DO want you to picture my very FAT HEAD
bobbing back in forth in the greatest display of arrogance you can
imagine.  Kay?)  Now, let’s proceed…I do occasionally pick up the pan
to ever so gently swirl the caramelizing sugar.  The humidity has been
so high here that the sugar I used (extra fine) was rather clumped, and
although I mashed the clumps a tad, they seemed a bit resistant to
melting down.  So what did I do?  I grabbed a spoon and poked a bit at
the clumps to help them along.  I DID NOT stir.  Promise.  I kept an
eye on the color, however, as it looked as though it wanted to turn
very, very dark.  So when all was melted, I also knew what to expect
from the addition of the cream — and I chose to use creme fraiche,
because it sounded lovely.  The directions stated:  

"Incorporate the heavy cream or creme fraiche and then add butter.  Mix thoroughly.  Set aside to cool."

Now,
I did know what to expect when I added the cream, and every recipe I’ve
used mentions what can happen, as it can be quite dangerous —
especially if you aren’t expecting it.  I added the creme fraiche, and
it bubbled up.  But it also did something I’ve not seen before.  It
clumped. Yes, clumped. Although the mixture did begin to develop into a
creamy caramel, there were clumps of caramelized sugar that had
solidified and resembled hard candy.  This made me a bit cranky.  I’m
sure it was punishment for having a FAT BOBBLE HEAD over the whole
thing and the kitchen gods smacked me back into place.  Sheesh.
Anyway, I added the butter, began to salivate a bit knowing that this
was going to be the most delictatble tasting caramel, and I began to
fantasize about what I could dip into it besides my fingers, and skip
the whole tart thing. I continued to stir, PATIENTLY, and eventually, the hard clumps of caramelized sugar melted.  Voila.

3.  Now, why would a recipe not explain the need to temper the eggs?  Hmmm…?
The
idea of a recipe being "helpful" is important depending on the
audience.  It is odd that this recipe did not direct the tempering of
eggs, a fairly common procedure when adding a warm mixture to an eggy
one.  Curdled or cooked eggs would ruin whatever recipe one was making
not only by leaving pieces of cooked egg in the finished product, but
by removing some of the raw egg needed to make the custard — which is
the whole point, right?  So, when I combined the caramel mixture with
that of the eggs, I did temper it first by adding a bit of the warm
mixture with the egg mixture, and then pouring it all into the caramel
mixture. Of course, my caramel may have been more hot than expected
since I had to melt my sugar clumps, and I did let it cool a bit before
combining the two mixtures, so who knows?  Maybe I’m just making this
all up as I go along.

4.  Moving right along to that mousse…I
made sure the whipping cream was quite firm while I played with the
chocolate.  I have one of those ultra low burners on my stove that the
manufacturer states can melt chocolate so gently, one can actually see
the embossed emblem in the chocolate.  I’d never tried this before, so
seized the opportunity.  It worked!  I don’t know that it matters for
any other reason than it was entertaining — well, and to be fair, I
didn’t have to worry about the chocolate.  I was able to set it
directly in the pan and leave it until it was melted.  Using a
microwave has worked fine in the past, but you really have to know your
microwave, or it’s very easy to overhead chocolate and ruin it.  And if
you’re using good chocolate, it could be costly (I used Scharffen
Berger’s Extra Rich Milk Chocolate for this recipe.)  So conceivably,
my low heat burner could help with multi-tasking — like whipping the
cream.  Yes, back to that cream…

Now here is the dilemma on
this stage of the recipe.  How long does one cool that melted chocolate
before adding it to the whipped cream?  Hmmmm?  Because warm chocolate
and cream could be problematic.  The directions stated: 

"Beat
the whipping cream until stiff.  Melt the milk chocolate in the
microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped
cream." 

So I
did as directed, but I noticed a lessening of the firmness of the
cream, and had wanted to pipe it onto the tart, so placed it in the
fridge for a while to chill.  After 20 minutes, I still attempted to
put the chocolate cream into a piper to decorate the top layer of the
tart.  It was still too soft.  *sigh*  My heart was broken, so I
scooped the chocolate cream out of the piper, spreading it on the tart
instead, and then used a fork to make a design, knowing that amongst
the very talented Daring Bakers, many were "out there," constructing an
absolutely beautiful piped chocolate cream topping.  If only I could
have used the chocolate recipe in The Joy of Cooking, or added a bit of
mascarpone to stiffen things up…BUT NO.  The kitchen gods had already
stuck once, so I didn’t want to risk a full on attack.  There would
have been chocolate everywhere.  Not a good thing in the August heat.
                                                                      
                                                                      
      




5.  I should have done some research on the caramelized sugar decorations.  Yanno? 
Sure,
I’ve seen demonstrations on television, and gorgeous photos in
cookbooks, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a "how to" on this —
well except for that Martha Stewart Croquembouche I made for Christmas
years ago that had spun sugar on it.  And I wasn’t about to go there.
Nope.  I read all the Daring Baker accounts of the chocolate crepe cake
from hell and eyeballed that spun sugar on top.  No.  I’ll save that
for another time.  But I did take time to try a bit of creativity.  The
directions stated: 

"Melt
1/2 cup granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber
color.  Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface.  Leave to
cool.  Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the
top of the tart."

Now
I know that "wax paper" and "parchment" are two different products.
And I have both, but I wasn’t willing to risk using the wax paper for
this.  I imagined that the heat of the caramelized sugar would melt the
wax surface and the whole thing would stick.  Hmmm…has that happened
before?  Might it have been during the infamous St. Honore Gateau
debacle?  Possibly.  So parchment it was, and thankfully, my rather
abstract shards of caramelized sugar became a fun way to decorate my
tart.  And to make an even bigger mess, I shaved some milk chocolate to
edge the tart with.  I had thought about learning to make chocolate
curls, or fans I’ve seen in Greenspan’s Baking with Julia, but I
chickened out.  I know.  W-E-A-K.  This would have been the PERFECT
challenge to do that with because this was not a challenging
challenge.  Don’t you agree?

Now, if I was someone who actually
had a remote semblance of patience at any point in my life, I would
have chilled the tart a bit, then inserted the "ART."  But no.  And the
shards were so heavy, they sort of began to sink a bit into the
chocolate cream. I finished up and threw the whole thing into the
fridge for the required hour, and lo and behold, the cream had set (so
I probably could have piped it!) and the ART hadn’t fallen into the
cream.  But it does look a bit like a battleship, don’t you think?

6.  I
should have remembered to look back at the beautiful photo of the tart
in the recipe on line right before I rolled up my sleves.  Woulda,
coulda, shoulda…
But I forgot.
How lame is that?  And now I’ve just seen it again today, and
immediately saw how thin the crust was, how perfect the center looked,
and how NOT PIPED the chocolate cream was.  Okay.  Whatever.  I have
promised myself that for the NEXT challenge, I will be more organized,
and more gutsy. And I totally need to take a photography class  — or
read the freaking manual that came with my camera instead of just
pressing buttons.  At least then I’d have some consistency and all TWO
of you who have managed to actually read down to this point won’t have
to tolerate the "golden glow" that is always in my photos.

All
in all, this makes for a very good dessert if you have a sweet tooth.
And I believe that if I had served this at a dinner party, it would
have received some Ooohs and Ahhhhs.  The flavor was pleasant, the
caramel center very good with the addition of the creme fraiche, and
the cookie-like crust the perfect compliment to it all.

And
compliments to Veronica and Patricia for hosting this very fine event.
I truly appreciated the formatting you clearly did so that when I
printed the directions, they were very, very organized.

Remember,
the Daring Bakers all agree to make the same item with the same
ingredients using the same recipe once a month.  After we’re finished,
we all post the challenge on the same day.  It’s the ultimate virtual
cooking class you can find!  Please
take the time to surf through all the intrepid, unflappable Daring
Bakers and I know you’ll be entertained by what you see and read!

p.s.
You do know I was going nuts for a piece of this tart after writing
about it, don’t you?  So I went down to the fridge, had another photo
op, and then indulged myself.  It’s amazing.  After four days, it is
extremely good.  It’s always good to know a good recipe that can be
made ahead.  This would be the one.