I remember the day I got Baking from my Home to Yours in the mail. I was so excited to finally flip through its pages and look at all the drool-worthy photos and read the delightful descriptions Dorie writes of every recipe. They were all quite tempting but one caught my eye and it has been known around these parts as the "I-have-to-make-this-tart-now" tart. Since I was just starting Tuesdays with Dorie at the time, I didn't want to try any one recipe just to have it be chosen by someone soon after. I really wanted to make the recipes as they were chosen. So I waited. Why didn't I choose that recipe when my turn came up? Perhaps because of the tart crust (I've always been a wee bit scared of them), or perhaps I was just as intrigued by the Chocolate Armagnac Cake as I was tempted by the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart. In any case, here we are now and I finally had THE perfect excuse to make this tart!
You guys all know how much I loooooove caramel, right? And chocolate, well that goes without saying. But peanuts, eh, they're not my thing. Since the recipe calls for honey roasted peanuts I always thought I might use pecans, almonds or cashews in the tart, but then on one trip to the grocery store, I came across a bag of honey roasted cashews. Honey Roasted Cashews! I couldn't believe my luck! This was going to be one great tart.
I had really, really high expectations of this tart and it lived up to them and then some! The silky ganache, the perfectly sweet and salty caramel, the crunchy contrast of the honey roasted cashews and the crispy cookie-like crust, all come together into one perfect dessert! It couldn't even be wrecked by the fact that I forgot to buy some unsalted butter last weekend and had only half of what was needed for the ganache. Even if it really was worth the wait, I would recommend you not to wait as long as I did to make this tart. If you don't have THE book (and you should!) visit Carla over at Chocolate Moosey and get thee that recipe right now! You will not regret it! And be sure to pay a visit to the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers for a massive dose of baking inspiration!
Being the sucker that I am for anything caramel, I couldn't pass up the chance to make a brownie cake topped with homemade caramel and nuts. The nuts in question were supposed to be peanuts but, my apologies to all of you peanut lovers out there, I was not going to make this cake with salted peanuts.
I thought about pecans, which would have been lovely, I'm sure, but I got a flash when I saw a tin of cashews at the grocery store. "Aha! Yes, cashews, that's it!" I love it when that happens. Anyways, I decided to halve the recipe because, again, knowing how much I love caramel, making the whole cake would have been dangerous. I even bought a few mini-springform pans for the occasion. Ah, how nice it is to have an excuse to shop for kitchen stuff!
Once my cutie cakes were baked and out of the oven, I noticed a little something was amiss. They both had huge craters in the middle! Hmmm, Dorie warns about the cake forming a small crater upon cooling but this was not a small crater! OK, moving on to the caramel, I must give you one word of advice: don't let yourself be distracted while the sugar is caramelizing! It will turn from a beautiful amber color to an awful burnt brown in a matter of seconds. If that happens, don't even bother with the cream and butter, just start over with a new batch of sugar.
My second batch of sugar, water and corn syrup was watched much more closely and became the gorgeous caramel called for in the recipe. The crater-cakes were then filled with spoonfuls of cashews and caramel and left alone to rest. The caramel wasn't runny at all once it had a chance to set, but it wasn't hard either, just the perfect texture. All my taste testers were in awe of the cake and so was I.
Another great Tuesdays with Dorie! Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy chose this knock out cake this week so you must visit her for the recipe!
You guys all know how much I loooooove caramel, right? And chocolate, well that goes without saying. But peanuts, eh, they're not my thing. Since the recipe calls for honey roasted peanuts I always thought I might use pecans, almonds or cashews in the tart, but then on one trip to the grocery store, I came across a bag of honey roasted cashews. Honey Roasted Cashews! I couldn't believe my luck! This was going to be one great tart.
I had really, really high expectations of this tart and it lived up to them and then some! The silky ganache, the perfectly sweet and salty caramel, the crunchy contrast of the honey roasted cashews and the crispy cookie-like crust, all come together into one perfect dessert! It couldn't even be wrecked by the fact that I forgot to buy some unsalted butter last weekend and had only half of what was needed for the ganache. Even if it really was worth the wait, I would recommend you not to wait as long as I did to make this tart. If you don't have THE book (and you should!) visit Carla over at Chocolate Moosey and get thee that recipe right now! You will not regret it! And be sure to pay a visit to the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers for a massive dose of baking inspiration!
