A delicious caramel and dulce de leche tart for rainy afternoons and moments of comfort!
Well, right from the title you understood we wouldn't be doing anything light today. But come on, with Christmas approaching we're allowed to let loose a little, right? At first, I had planned to make a millionaire shortbread pie-style tart. I had indeed left the culinary influencers festival with plenty of little Nestlé products. I thought the pouch I had received was condensed milk and actually it wasn't. No problem, I tried my recipe with dulce de leche and it was very good. Not super light but a little taste of come-back-for-more for this caramel and dulce de leche tart.
Initially, I had prepared this tart for my badminton association. But a stubborn metro ticket and a slightly treacherous staircase had decided together to pin me to my couch with a nice sprain... (which put me slightly behind schedule as you may have noticed). But it did allow me to recover from my emotions by devouring enjoying this tart in peace and quiet.
And I can tell you it goes down pretty well. A nice creamy dulce de leche/caramel coating dripping over a nice crispy pie crust. Well, some will find it a bit sugary (and honestly with a caramel/dulce de leche mixture, I'll have a hard time 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 all the lining in detail for you (you can find the detailed method in my ebook). You just have to (yes I know... but it will come!) mix the butter and powdered sugar. Add the sifted flour and 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 reserve in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. And then you'll have to be patient because there's nothing else you can do while waiting. Since the caramel sets quite quickly, no question of preparing it before the pie crust is baked. It is therefore necessary to bake it blind before pouring the caramel mixture on it 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 so it's easier to roll out. Then line the pie pan or ring (I myself have a 20 cm diameter pan and was able to make 2 small 6 cm tarts in addition). Bake for about 20 minutes (until the dough is golden and crispy actually). Remove from oven and let cool down in a corner.
You can then start on the caramel/dulce de leche mixture. It's quite simple actually (simpler than a classic caramel because there's little risk of it burning). Put the sugar, butter and a tablespoon of honey (I didn't have any left so I used glucose and it works very well) in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Melt everything slowly and when the mixture is liquid, slowly add the dulce de leche. Mix and let simmer for 5 minutes (the mixture should color and thicken) then pour onto the pie crust touching it as little as possible.
The idea is to slowly spread the caramel by letting it slide (forget spatulas and the like, you'll only manage to make marks on the caramel). Then let it harden in the fridge. If you're motivated, you can melt 200 g of 70% dark chocolate and pour it over the top of the tart, the bitterness of the chocolate should counter-balance the sweetness of the caramel. It was planned for me but I didn't have time (I should have though, it would have saved me from running in that damn staircase...).
Things are starting to get better, probably this little sugar rush had something to do with it. Don't wait for a fall to try this delicious caramel and dulce de leche tart ^^.
