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”
This looks so good. I’ll be making a variety of things for a dinner party and I’d like this to be one of them. Can you elaborate on how you serve it in diamond shaped pieces? I have a rectangular tart pan that I could use, and then cut into smaller pieces more easily. Is the caramel firm enough that multiple pieces can be on a serving tray without it oozing all over to form one big mass again? It looks pretty firm in your photos, but some of the comments mention that it’s kind of gooey. Is that because they didn’t cook the caramel long enough? Also – when you cut into smaller diamonds, do you cut off the crust.? Sorry for all the questions! I’ve just recently found your blog and am enjoying it immensely!
Hi Mary, how many will be at your dinner party? If it’s a small enough number, I’d probably change to individual tart shells. The thing about this tart is that the caramel can’t be too firm (otherwise it’d taste like a chewy candy bar), but a more runny texture increases that lusciousness, so it’s a fine line. It definitely gets messy and more runny as it sits out at room temperature, as opposed to chilling in the fridge. One time I did bring this to a party, I just cut the whole tart into small pieces (include the crust), and they disappeared quickly enough that they didn’t sit out on the table for long and didn’t really warm up (and run off). Does that help? I honestly feel like this is not ideal dinner party food in that way, because it’s harder to control than other things. But maybe this will help you make a better decision. Let me know if you have more questions.
This didn’t turn out for me . I followed the directions for the caramel and it started vigorously bubbling very quickly . Then after adding the butter and cream , it bubbled vigorously again very quickly and was going to over flow from the saucepan. I tried turning my heat down but nothing worked. When I went to cut the tart this morning the caramel was oozing out a little. How do you get it to solidify ?
Very disappointed because I made this for a potluck for my husband to bring to work.
Hi Christine, I’m sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you, and I understand what it’s like to be disappointed by a recipe not turning out. Vigorous bubbling when adding cream and butter is very normal, I think the solution there would be to use a larger saucepan so there’s room, and I will add that to my recipe notes to emphasize that. After the bubbling, did the caramel smooth out? I think probably not enough moisture cooked out of the caramel, maybe because the heat was turned out, so the caramel was too soft. However, generally speaking this is not an ideal option for something like a potluck or taking it somewhere, because it’s a bit messy. As an alternative, it may be better to bake it as mini tartlets if bringing it somewhere. Hope this helps and let me know if I can answer more questions.
I had the same issue. Can you suggest a temperature to reach for this step.
HOLY COW this is delicious. So rich but in the very best way.
This looks so delicious-that CARAMEL! I need to try this. Thanks for the recipe!
Yum! This looks so rich and delicious!
Just wanted to share that I love your you tube channel and blog!
Thanks so much, Brittney. Happy cooking!
Wow ur tart makes my mouth watery….excellent post joanne…
Hi Joanne,
I love love all your recipe. Can I leave out corn syrup? What is corn syrup for in making caramel?
Thanks
You can try, though it’s a lot to omit. Corn syrup is there for textural reasons, and also prevents crystallization.
Wow!
I love your baked goods and look forward to trying them myself.
Thanks Michele!
Wow. I was scrolling through your “deserts” section and just had to click on this. The next thing I knew, the crust was already in the oven, even though we still have your lemon bars and half a cake in the fridge and probably shouldn’t have any more sugar. Everything here just looks so AMAZING…. I am so glad my cousin told me about this site 🙂
Hi Izzy, wow, well I hope you enjoy everything! This is one of my favorite desserts.
I made this and it was just incredible. Very difficult to have more than a tiny slice though, sooo sweet (not a bad thing!!!!)
Hi Jessie, I visited your page and left a comment “Yours turned out wonderful! Glad you enjoyed the tart…I love that stuff. I agree…small slices! haha.” However, it didn’t show up I don’t think. For some reason this always happens when I try to comment on blogspot blogs with my Mac.
Thanks for letting me know 🙂
I just made this for my holiday book club, AKA The Drunk Club that Reads. The tart was ridiculous to cut, and the first few pieces served were smooshy heaps. Still, the tart was beyond decadent and went fabulously with the port we had, and everyone went ape over it.
I think the next time I make this, I’ll line the crust with pecans or even do a nut-based crust. As amazing as the recipe is, it might benefit from a salty element within the tart.
I was sent here by Rufus, and oh. my. word. What an AMAZING looking tart. Holy buckets; I’m going t have to whip up one of these bad boys…
It’s honestly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, and in case you couldn’t tell, I eat a lot of pretty awesome food LOL! Let me know how it goes if you make it!
How have I not found your blog before tonight? I love your style of writing and your food styling photography… delicousness!
I just came here from Rufus’ blog, all I can say is OH MY! I’m going to attempt to halve this recipe and use a mini spring form pan, any thoughts? If it works out, these may end up being gifts for some lucky few. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Mary, Hm, that would probably work. I don’t know how big your pan is but if you’re fine with having a little extra I’m sure it wouldn’t be a problem (and as Greg said, extra caramel is not a problem LOL).