Well, right from the title you understood that we weren't going to keep it light today. But honestly, with Christmas approaching we're allowed to let loose a little, right? Initially, I planned to make a millionaire shortbread style tart. I had indeed left the culinary influencer festival with lots of little Nestlé products. I thought the tube I received was sweetened condensed milk but it wasn't. No matter, I tried my recipe with dulce de leche and it was very good. Not super light but with a little come-back-for-more taste for this caramel and dulce de leche tart.
Originally, I had prepared this tart for my badminton club. But a stubborn metro ticket and a slightly tricky staircase had decided together to pin me down on my couch with a nice sprain... (which put me slightly behind schedule as you may have noticed). It still allowed me to recover from my emotions by devouring tasting this tart in peace.
And I can tell you it goes down quite well. A nice creamy dulce de leche and caramel filling dripping over a crispy tart dough. Well, some will find it a touch too sweet (and honestly with a caramel and dulce de leche mix, I'm going to have trouble defending myself ^^) but I found it super comforting!
The base is a simple sweet dough (I wanted to get as close as possible to the millionaire shortbread recipe). I didn't redo the whole lining process for you in detail (you can find the detailed method in my ebook). You just have to (yes I know... but it will come!) mix the butter and icing sugar. Add the flour and sifted salt, 40 g of egg and 15 g of almond powder. Then mix until the dough comes together.
Make a large patty that you wrap and keep in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. And there you'll need to be patient because you can't do anything else while waiting. Since the caramel sets pretty quickly, there's no question of preparing it before the tart base is cooked. It is therefore necessary to bake it blind before placing the caramel mixture on top, which will harden as it cools.
So once our dough patty is nice and cold, take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for 10 minutes to make it easier to roll out. Then line the tart pan or ring (I have a 20 cm diameter pan and was able to make 2 small 6 cm tarts as well). Bake for about 20 minutes (until the dough is golden and crispy actually). Remove from oven and let cool quietly in a corner.
You can then get to work on the caramel and dulce de leche mixture. It's pretty simple actually (simpler than regular caramel because there's little risk of it burning). Put the sugar, butter and a tablespoon of honey (I was out so I used glucose and it works very well) in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Melt everything slowly and when the mixture is liquid, slowly add the dulce de leche. Mix and let boil for 5 minutes (the mixture should color and thicken) then pour onto the tart base touching it as little as possible.
The idea is to spread the caramel gently by sliding it (forget the spatulas and everything, you'll only succeed in making marks on the caramel). Then let it harden quietly in the fridge. If you're motivated, you can melt 200 g of 70% dark chocolate and pour it on top of the tart, the bitterness of the chocolate should counterbalance the sweetness of the caramel. That was planned for me but I didn't have time (I should have though, it would have saved me running up that damn staircase...).
It's starting to get better, probably this little sugar shot didn't hurt. But don't wait for a fall to try this delicious caramel and dulce de leche tart ^^.
