A chocolate, pastry and caramel tart that is sensational but never sickly

I refrained writing a chocolate-focused recipe for Valentine’s Day last week, because I don’t need a commercialised day of the year to enjoy a sumptuous and decadent chocolate dessert. Chocolate is for any time.

This week’s recipe goes beyond the average chocolate tart and showcases one of my favourite dessert combinations: chocolate and caramel. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s bitter, and the first time I tested and tasted this recipe I had one of those heavenly eye-roll satisfaction moments. It ticks all the boxes, and my favourite thing about it is it isn’t overly indulgent or sickly.

There are a few elements to this bake, and the first is a shortcrust pastry. I have used regular sweet pastry in numerous desserts in this column, but this one is slightly different as it is chocolate shortcrust pastry. It is slightly bitter and works perfectly with the filling. It can be made in advance and chilled in the fridge if needed. The filling is the real star of the show here – it’s a dual-filled tart layered with a luscious sweet and salty caramel custard and topped with a silky dark chocolate cream.

The layers are set perfectly with a little gelatine, and that first slice reveals three beautiful clean layers of pastry, caramel and chocolate.

Dark chocolate and caramel tart

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The pastry is blind baked, and the edges trimmed before the fillings are allowed to set individually. It isn’t as laborious as it sounds. The caramel layer can be made while the tart base is cooking and cooling, and the chocolate layer can be made while the caramel layer is setting. The tart then needs to be chilled for about an hour to ensure all the layers are completely set.

This tart is  finished by dusting with some cocoa powder and sprinkling with a little sea salt to serve.

Recipe: Dark chocolate and caramel tart