Golden tartlets with baked hazelnut cream and caramel chocolate

Makes 12 Desserts and puddings

Advertisement

Method

Arrange 12 egg rings, approx. 7.5cm in diameter and 1cm high, on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on a medium speed until smooth. Add the brown sugar, hazelnut flour and egg and mix until combined.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder and continue to mixuntil the ingredients come together as a dough. Once the dough forms, stop mixing to ensure you don’t develop the gluten, which will make the pastry tough and chewy. Press the dough into an even, flat square, wrap it in clingfilm and transfer to the fridge for around 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C F/Gas 5. Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough out to approx. 3mm thick. Cut 12 discs out of the dough using a 9.5cm round cutter and then transfer to the egg rings, pressing the pastry into the base and sides and trimming any overhang.

Line the pastry with scrunched, then flattened, baking paper and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice to blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the baking beans or rice and baking paper and set the pastry aside at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 185C/165C F/Gas 3.

For the hazelnut cream, put the egg, caster sugar and hazelnut flour in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the hazelnuts and fold them through, then spoon the mixture into the prepared tart shells until each shell is half full and bake for 10–12 minutes until light golden brown.

Meanwhile, for the caramel, put the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. Combine the honey, cream, orange zest, vanilla bean paste, glucose and salt in a small pan set over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Strain the cream mixture through a sieve into a bowl, set aside and keep warm.

Put the sugar in a wide-based pan and put over a medium heat. Stir gently with a spatula until completely dissolved and caramelised before removing from the heat. If the sugar is caramelising quickly and you still have lumps of sugar, lower the temperature to allow the sugar to dissolve before the caramel burns.

Carefully add the warm cream mixture to the caramel and whisk to combine, then return the pan to the hob and cook over a low heat for 1 minute. Pour the caramel mixture over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and incorporated into the caramel. Add the hazelnuts and mix to combine.

Remove the tarts from the rings and spread the caramel over the baked hazelnut cream in the tarts before serving.

They can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.