Sponsored by Anchor Cream
If you are planning your Christmas desserts, you can’t go past these delicious Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tarts, served with homemade Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream and fresh berries. They taste amazing and look so elegant. We always plan the dessert first for Christmas and then work back from there! This year we will have 17 at our Christmas table so we need recipes suitable for a larger gathering and can be prepared in advance. We love desserts that are already portioned – it makes serving so much easier – and they are perfect for a Christmas celebration.
Have you seen the new Anchor cream, available from Woolworths supermarkets? It is beautiful fresh Australian cream, from dairy farms in Victoria, that has been designed with foodies in mind. It comes in 250 ml (1 cup) and 500 ml (2 cups) bottles which makes measuring so much easier. It also has measurement markers on the side of the bottle to allow for precise pouring and easy measurement. We love the screw top lid – no more messy drips/spills. When we were asked to put Anchor cream to the test, we knew the Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tarts would be ideal.
Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tarts consist of a delicious chocolate shortcrust pastry, filled with a salted caramel filling, and then topped with piped chocolate ganache. They taste so good – it is hard to stop at one! To make 24 tarts, you will need 1 1/3 cups of Anchor Thickened Cream.
- Pastry
- 11/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup icing (confectioners) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon sea slat
- 9 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 1 large egg yolk
- Salted Caramel Filling
- ⅓ cup Anchor Thickened cream
- ½ cup sugar
- 70 grams (1/2 stick) butter, cut into pieces
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Chocolate ganache:
- 225 g dark baking chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup Anchor thickened cream
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- To make tart shells: Put flour, cocoa, icing sugar, and slat in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add chopped butter and pulse until butter is cut in. Lightly whisk the yolk, and pulse it in. Turn the dough onto a work surface.
- Shape the dough into a disc. Roll out the dough evening until it is 2-3 mm thick (1/8 - 1/16 inch). Slide the sheet of dough onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
- Let the dough rest at room temperature for approx 10 minutes. Use a tart cutter to cut the shells.Lightly grease the tartlet pan, and fill with the pastry. Prick the crust all over and then freeze for 30 minutes.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 190 deg C (375 deg F) for 12-14 minutes.
- To make the salted caramel filling: Bring the cram to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat.
- Pour the sugar over the bottom of a small frypan and put over medium heat. When the sugar starts to melt around the edges, stir until the sugar turns a light golden colour. Turn off the heat and add butter. Then add the cream. Put it back on the heat and stir until smooth (approx 1 minute). Then stir in the salt. Allow to cool completely.
- Fill cooled tart shells with a spoonful of the filling.
- Chocolate ganache: Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and then pour it over the chocolate. Wait for a minute and then stir the cream/chocolate. Put it in the refrigerator and stir it occasionally until it has thickened.
- When the ganache is chilled, whip it for a minute, and then pipe it onto the filled tarts.
To make the Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream you will need 1 1/4 cups of Anchor Thickened Cream. Our favourite Vanilla Bean ice-cream recipe is from Jeni’s Splendid Ice-Creams At Home. You can find Jeni’s Ice-Cream base recipe here and you add the seeds of vanilla bean to it. It is a delicious, velvety ice-cream which is the perfect accompaniment to the Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tarts.
Anchor cream comes in Thickened, Light Thickened and Pure varieties, and is perfect for the home cook. It is suitable for whipping, pouring, and cooking and is available from Woolworths nationally.
What are you planning for your Christmas dessert?
Looks delicious! What if we can’t find Anchor Thickened Cream where we live? What do you suggest we use instead?
Hi Kathleen – Anchor cream is available in Australia from Woolworths. If you don’t have it where you are, if you are in the USA you can substitute heavy whipping cream or heavy cream, for the same result. Happy baking!
These look delicious Lisa! Anything with salted caramel is a winner in my book! I think I need to pin this and make it once this heatwave in Victoria is over!
Hope it cools down for you soon! We have a mild Christmas forecast for Perth which will be a welcome change. You will love the tarts – they are so delicious. Our first batch is nearly gone 🙂