And again, Dorie Greenspan’s book makes an appearance…

I sifted through the pages of Greenspan’s book searching for the perfect dessert for Thanksgiving this year. I did made an apple pie (with a pretty green new dish I recently purchased), and brought along some ginger spice cookies, but I also wanted something chocolaty that I’ve never made before.

It was like love at first sight. The Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. The picture in the book looked like I should take a fork to the page and eat the entire thing. So it was settled. I was going to make this tart, with my new pan, from the crust up.

Making the crust isn’t easy. It takes patience, and is worth it. I dedicated an entire post to making the crust alone for first timers like myself. If you’re an experienced crust-maker, you can skip over this post

I wasn’t around when the tart was first cut into, but my family says the caramel layer was very hard, almost too hard to eat. It’s supposed to be eaten at room temperature, which it was, so I found it odd that it was so tough.

However, the next day when I went to have myself a piece, it was fine! It was kept in the fridge and I actually enjoyed it cold. The caramel layer was chewy, but not too hard to eat. The flavors of the chocolate, caramel, and peanuts came together so well, almost like a candy bar. I will definitely make this again.

Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the caramel:

• scant 1/2 c heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 T light corn syrup
• 2 T salted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• Pinch of salt if you are not using salted butter

For the ganache:

• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup plus 2 T heavy cream
• 1/2 stick (4 T) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 3/4 c honey-roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 9-inch tart shell, fully baked and cooled

Getting ready:Because you have to work quickly once the sugar caramelizes, you should have all the ingredients for the caramel measured out and at hand before you start. Also have a medium heatproof bowl at hand to hold the hot caramel.

To make the caramel: Bring the heavy cream to a boil.

Meanwhile, put a medium skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat and sprinkle in about 3 T of the sugar. When it melts, stir it with a wooden spatula or a fork and sprinkle over another 3 T. When that sugar is melted, add the remaining 2 T sugar — the sugar in the pan may already have started to color, and that’s fine. Stir in the corn syrup and boil the syrup until it reaches a deep caramel color — it will probably begin to smoke, and that’s normal.

Stand back from the skillet and stir in the butter and salt, if you’re using it. The caramel will bubble furiously and may spatter, so make sure you’re away from the action. When the butter is in, add the warm cream — the caramel will bubble furiously again. Lower the temperature just a tad and let the caramel boil for just 2 minutes. (If you want to check on a thermometer, the caramel should be at 226 degrees F.)

Pour the seething caramel into the heatproof bowl and set it aside while you make the ganache.

To make the ganache: Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and have a whisk or a rubber spatula at hand.

Bring the cream to a boil, then pour half of it over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Working with the whisk or spatula, very gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the center of the bowl and working your way out in increasingly larger concentric circles. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motion. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. Don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients — the less you work it, the darker, smoother and shinier it will be.

Cover the ganache with a piece of plastic wrap, pressing the plastic against the surface of the chocolate to create an airtight seal. Set aside at room temperature for the moment. (If it’s more convenient, the ganache can be refrigerated or even frozen for future use.)

To assemble the tart: Using a small rubber spatula, stir the peanuts into the caramel. If the caramel has cooled and is too thick to spread easily, gently warm it in a microwave oven using 3-second heat spurts. (Or you can just hold the heatproof bowl about 10 inches above the burner on your range — keep it over the heat for a couple of seconds, then check the caramel’s consistency and repeat if necessary.)

Spread the caramel over the bottom of the tart shell; you’ll have a thin layer. refrigerate the tart for 15 minutes to set the caramel.

Check the ganache. If it has thickened and is no longer pourable, warm it in 3-second spurts in a microwave oven or over direct heat (see the hints for warming caramel, above). Rap the bowl to break any surface bubbles, pour the ganache over the caramel and jiggle the tart pan to even it.

Refrigerate the tart for 30 minutes — no longer — then keep it at room temperature until serving time.

Third Time’s a Charm

As a new member of the food blogging society, there are certain things I notice and look for when reading other blogs. I like to search the web for new recipes to try and tend to lean more toward recipes from personal blogs. I like these because the blogger usually gives more description about the recipe than a big-name website would. One thing I would like to see more of though -admitting mistakes or mess-ups. I know, from experience, not everything comes out the way you plan – in baking and in life. No one is perfect.

So let me start off by saying that it took me 3 tries to get this tart crust right. Three times! The first time, the dough seemed way too dry with only one large egg yolk, so I added another. And then when it still seemed too dry, I added another. Bad idea. It was too yolky and yellow and I knew it was going to lose it’s flaky texture. Basura!

So I started fresh. Pulsed all the ingredients together in the food processor with only 1 egg yolk this time. But again, it was too dry for me to form into a dough! So I added a few tablespoons of water. Awful idea. The dough was too wet and sticky, and again, I knew it was going to lose it’s flaky texture.

For the third and last time, all ingredients went into the food processor, no more, no less. I didn’t care how dry it was, I was going to make it into a dough. So I poured it onto a lightly floured counter top and kneaded it so that all the dry ingredients were incorporated. I gently pressed it into the pan and baked it with no problems. The trick with this crust is, that when you knead it on the counter, you are supposed to use your hands to incorporate all the dry ingredients in so they combine with the wet ingredients. It works. Don’t panic. Your patience is well worth it because this crust really is delicious.

Sweet Tart Dough

Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg yolk

To make the dough: Put the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely – you’ll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that’s just fine. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses – about 10 seconds each – until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before your reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change – heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface.

Very lightly and sparingly – make that very, very lightly and sparingly – knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

If you want to press the dough into a tart pan, now is the time to do it.

[If you want to chill the dough and roll it out later (doable, but fussier than pressing), gather the dough into a ball (you might have to use a little more pressure than you used to mix in dry bits, because you do want the ball to be just this side of cohesive), flatten it into a disk, wrap it well and chill it for at least 2 hours or for up to 1 day.]

To make a press-in crust: Butter the tart pan and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don’t be stingy – you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don’t be too heavy-handed – you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don’t want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbreadish texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against the crust. Bake the crust 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack; keep it in its pan.