Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart
This Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart is one of my favorite ever desserts. It goes all out with flavor and richness, with a cocoa crust, salted caramel, chocolate ganache, and a sprinkle of sea salt.
This Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart is one of the biggest tests of willpower that I know.
It’s dangerous, dangerous stuff. But! I do have a philosophy that when eating desserts, you should only bother eating it if it rocks your socks off, so this little guy can stay.
What I do to get around eating this whole thing myself is I make it for parties.
It’s a great recipe to make either for a dinner party at home or for taking it to a party, because it can be made ahead and it sits out well. When I take it to parties with lots of people, I cut the tart into mini bite-sized diamonds so it can be enjoyed by many people. And the entire platter always disappears early into the party.
Let me show you how to make it! It has three parts to it, the crust, caramel, and chocolate ganache, but they’re all very easy.
How to Make Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart:
Make the chocolate cookie crust by creaming butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla, then mix in flour, cocoa powder, and salt:
It will look crumbly, but this is a good thing. Spread the crumbles evenly into a tart pan:
Then press evenly with your fingers:
Bake that and let it cool.
Make the caramel by cooking sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt:
Once it’s amber in color, add butter:
Then add heavy cream and vanilla:
If the caramel separates, don’t worry! Cook for another five minutes and it will smooth out. Pour the caramel into the tart crust:
Then let it chill until firm.
Combine heavy cream and chopped chocolate to make a ganache, then spread it all over the top of the caramel. Sprinkle with sea salt:
Refrigerate the tart to let the ganache firm up, then it’s ready to be sliced:
Enjoy! Find the full recipe below, and here’s a full tutorial video on how to make it:
Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart
Ingredients
For the Cookie Crust:
- 7.5 oz all-purpose flour, by weight (1.5 cups, measured)
- 1 oz cocoa powder, by weight (1/2 cup, measured)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp butter at room temperature
- 2.5 oz confectioner's sugar, by weight (1/2 cup, measured)
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the Salted Caramel:
- 2.25 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 3/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp butter at room temperature
- 1.5 cups heavy cream
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Ganache:
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- coarse sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- For the crust, whisk to combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla, and mix until combined. Little by little, add the dry ingredients until incorporated. The dough may look crumbly, but it should come together easily when you pinch the dough between two fingers.
- Press the dough out into your tart pan. Prick all over with a fork, and pop into the freezer for 10 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
- For the caramel, place the sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan, then give it a shake to flatten out the sugar pile. Add the water, corn syrup, and salt, but DO NOT STIR. Cook over medium to medium high heat until the sugar turns clear and dissolves (be patient, this may take 20 minutes, but you don’t want to rush caramel or it may burn in a flash). After the sugar has dissolved, it will bubble more vigorously and the sugar mixture will start to take on an amber color. Once it looks caramel colored, stir in the butter. Be careful of potential sputtering. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the heavy cream and vanilla (and again, stand back). Don’t worry if the caramel separates. Cook for 10 minutes over medium high heat, stirring with a spatula, until it’s smooth and thickened. Pour the caramel into the cooled crust, and refrigerate for about 3 hours, until set.
- To make the chocolate ganache, heat the heavy cream to a simmer, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 60 seconds, then stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate ganache over the caramel tart, and refrigerate for a few hours until set.
- To serve, cut into slices and garnish with sea salt, if desired. Enjoy!!!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
[Updated from the archives with new photos and a video. Originally published November 2011]
66 Comments on “Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache Tart”
What size tart pan?
This one uses an 11 inch tart pan. Hope you enjoy!
I have a question!
After putting my tart in the fridge my caramel becomes hard as a rock. Is that normal?
Yes, this happens with caramel sauce as well. Caramel changes significantly with temperature, so you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a bit in order to slice and enjoy again.
I’ve made two chocolate tarts using your recipe…the first one was too sweet so I cut down the sugar by more than half and it still turned out great. I also omitted the sugar in the crust…it was yummy! Thanks for the easy recipe.
I tried to make this and it looked great but when I went to cut a piece it was so hard that I couldn’t even cut it. The caramel was like a rock. Even when I let it warm up to room temperature it was still too hard to cut. What am I doing wrong?
How long did you leave it at room temperature? I am wondering if possibly the caramel went to too high of a temperature. Did you add the full amounts of butter and cream and such to the caramel? Sorry to hear you had trouble with this…will look at how I can make things more precise so this doesn’t happen.
Pls include the refrigerator time next time, I did not have enough time complete the tart
What temperature should be the caramel before addind the butter?
Pls answer because I really want to make this
Great video!!!
What should be the temperature of the caramel before adding the butter
Pls answer I wanna make this next friday!!!!!!
Thanks it’s a great recipe!!!!!
Made this last night Its beautiful BUT the caramel out of the fridge is almost too hard to cut. Did I over cook the caramel? Mine looked darker than yours when I poured it in the crust.
The caramel will be very firm when chilled. Try to let it come to room temperature first to soften.
Hi
Can this be frozen after its made to use at a later date xx
Made last night and really enjoyed the finished product. Found the pastry a little dry… might make my own shortcut type pastry next time but with added cocoa powder. I might have overworked it or over cooked it though. Thanks for the recipe!