Perfect if you’re looking for tea party dessert recipes, this recipe makes two mini, or 1 small, miso caramel and chocolate tarts. They taste like mini salted caramel chocolate tarts, but with an extra umami flavor from the miso! The miso caramel is super easy to make and the tarts are so cute!
Mini tart pans (either 2 pans about 3.5 inches in diameter or 1 5-inch pan)
Ingredients
Pastry
50gflour
1tspsugar
pinchof salt
25gbutter
2.5tspice water
Miso Caramel
10gsugar
4gbutter
15gcream
1tspmiso
Chocolate Ganache:
75gcream
40gdark chocolate
30gmilk or semi sweet chocolate
Decoration (optional):
2tbspwhite chocolate chips
Instructions
Stir together the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and then rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Once the butter is in very small pieces, add the cold water and stir with a butter knife to combine. Knead the dough together gently until it just forms a ball, and then wrap in plastic wrap or a reusable wrap and refrigerate for half an hour while you make the caramel.
In your smallest sauce pan cook the sugar over medium heat until it starts to caramelize. To avoid crystallization, cover the pan with a lid or use a pastry brush dipped in a glass of water to brush down the sides of the pan where crystals normally form.
Once the sugar has caramelized, stir in the butter followed by the cream and then remove from the heat and stir in the miso. Set aside.
Preheat your oven to 350 F.
Roll out your pastry and line your tart tins. You can use two 3-4 inch tins or 1 larger 5 inch tin. Make sure to roll your dough as thin as possible without it breaking, in order to achieve the crispiest pastry!
Refrigerate your lined pastry cases for at least 10 minutes. This helps reduce shrinking in the oven.
Prick the base of your pastry a few times with a fork or sharp knife, and then bake for 17-20 minutes until lightly golden brown on the base.
Let the cases cool for a few minutes before adding half the caramel to each tart (or all of it to the 5-inch tart if you used a larger tart ring). It’s okay if the caramel has set slightly, the warmth of the pastry will soften it. Spread it out with a spoon or small spatula.
Let the tarts cool out of their tins for 5 – 10 minutes, and while it is cooling, make the chocolate ganache. To do so, finely chop the chocolate and set it aside. Heat the cream in a small bowl in the microwave in 30-second increments until very hot but not boiling. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream and let sit for 5 minutes before whisking to combine. If the chocolate hasn't fully melted, you can microwave it again for a few seconds. Pour the ganache into the tart shells.
Let the tarts set in the fridge for about half an hour before decorating and eating.
You can absolutely eat the tarts as is, but if you’d like to decorate them with a little white chocolate, you’re more than welcome to! To do so, just melt a couple tablespoons of white chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave and then transfer to a small homemade parchment piping bag or a small plastic piping bag. Cut a very small opening on the end and pipe straight lines across your tarts. Or whatever decoration you’d like! Alternatively, whip a little cream with some icing sugar and pipe or spoon the cream onto your tarts.
Notes
This recipe will work well in either two miniature tart pans that are around 3.5 inches in diameter, or in one larger 5-inch tart pan. Alternatively, you could also make this in muffin pans. Roll and cut the pastry, so it comes halfway up the muffin tins, and you should be able to make 3-4 tarts depending on the size of your muffin pan.