Salted Caramel Brownie Tart

http://bakingwithelliott.com/wp-admin/edit.phpIt’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉 

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and friends or if you’re hosting a Christmas party!

Let’s be honest, chocolate and salted caramel is always going to be a winning combination and it’s no exception in this tart.

 

Starting with a chocolate shortcrust pastry crust, with a generous layer of salted caramel sauce which is topped with a brownie layer and finished with a drizzle of salted caramel – tell me this tart isn’t good!

If salted caramel isn’t you sort of thing, feel free to use plain caramel (but the salted caramel works so darn well!) and if you don’t like caramel at all, this recipe isn’t for you at all. If you’re looking for more traditional brownies I have recipes for Terry’s chocolate orange brownies – perfect for Christmas.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 egg.

90g Sugar

225g Butter.

325g Plain flour.

50g Cocoa powder

Filling:

Salted caramel sauce.

Brownie Layer

140g Butter, melted.

225g Granulated white sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

45g Cocoa powder.

75g Milk chocolate chips.

100g Plain flour

100g Milk chocolate chips

Methods:

Before you get into making the tart, I recommend doing some prep work i advance. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f  and prepare any equipment you may need.

Pastry:

To start on the pastry, place your egg and granulated sugar into a bowl and beat them together until they are well combined, you should notice that the mixture will lighten in colour when fully combined. Set it aside until it’s needed a little later on.

Take a food processor and in the bowl, place the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Pulse on a low-medium speed just to combine the ingredients. 

Then you can add the butter in little chunks and pulse on a low-medium speed until a sandy consistency forms, then add in the egg/sugar mixture and pulse until a dough has formed. Try your best not over mix the dough at this stage.

Flour a surface with some plain flour and place the pastry onto it, kneading until the smooth. You can then take it and wrap it in some clingfilm/plastic wrap and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can make it in advance at this stage and use within 5 days).

I generous flour my worktop again, then take my dough from the fridge and unwrap it and place onto the floured surface. I then start to roll out my dough using a rolling pin until its 5mm thick.

I roll the pastry up back onto the rolling pin and then place it on-top of the pie dish and press the dough into place. Once it’s all in place, you can then trim away the excess (ball the dough back up and use it on another tart or wrap in clingfilm and freeze it).

Place the pastry case in the fridge to chill while you make the brownie layer.

Brownie:

Into a medium mixing bowl, place the melted butter and cocoa powder and whisk the two together until they are well combined. The mixture will be thick and glossy when combined.

Add in all of the granulated sugar and whisk until it’s been fully worked into the mixture. You’ll notice a change in the consistency of the batter and that it’s more granular. This is normal and will become smoother as the other ingredients are incorporated. 

Then you can go ahead and add your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As you add the eggs, you’ll notice that the consistency will become less granular and more liquid.

Chuck the plain flour and milk chocolate chips into the mix and fold them in until they are incorporated. The less you can mix them together the better it is for the brownies, they will be dense rather than cakey.

Assembly & Finishing:

Take the pastry cake you prepared earlier on out of the fridge and into the bottom pour the salted caramel sauce and spread it out using the back of a spoon – on-top of the caramel, pour the brownie batter over and level if needed.

Place in the oven and bake for around 35 minutes (or until a tester inserted into the centres comes out with only a few smudges on) but this time will vary depending on each oven.

Once it’s out of the oven, allow it to cool (this is soooo nice when slightly warm but you can always place it in the microwave if you’re eating it once its completely cooled down), then slice it up and drizzle over some more salted caramel and enjoy.

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below.