Chocolate Caramel Tart

Second week of the outdoor Bernice's Table. Forty-seven people. The numbers are climbing back toward where they were before COVID, which is both gratifying and practically demanding—more food, more volunteers, more organization—but the practical demands of doing something meaningful are not a burden I will ever resent. The burden of the Tuesday dinner is the good burden, the weight that means you are doing the thing you were made to do, the weight that straightens your back rather than bending it.

One of the Tuesday regulars—the older gentleman who always took his cornbread home in a napkin before COVID—came back Tuesday. He came through the line and when I handed him his plate he stopped and said, "Mother Simms, I missed your table." I said, "Baby, your table missed you." He is in his seventies, I think—I don't know his name, we have never exchanged names, but I know his face the way you know the face of someone who has eaten at your table for years, which is more intimately than you know many people you can name—and he took his plate to one of the distant parking lot tables and he sat down and he ate, and I watched him eat from across the parking lot and I thought: this. Right here. This is what the table is for.

Halloween is coming and I am making caramel apples again. Third year running. The neighborhood is modified for COVID—fewer trick-or-treaters, some families doing drive-by candy drops in bags left on porches—but the Simms porch will have caramel apples because the tradition is three years old now and tradition is made of repetition and I intend to repeat this one for as long as I can stand in front of a pot of caramel. Marcus would have stolen one. He would have come back for a second and said "I meant to take two." I would have let him take as many as he wanted. I always would have.

Every October I stand in front of a pot of caramel and I think about what it means to do a thing the same way, in the same place, for the same people — and how that repetition is not sameness but accumulation, each year adding weight and meaning to the one before it. Caramel is patient work; you cannot rush it, and it does not forgive distraction, and maybe that is exactly why I find it grounding. This Chocolate Caramel Tart is where that same patience lives in a recipe — a little bitter, a little sweet, the kind of thing you make because someone at your table deserves something beautiful, and because Marcus would have taken two slices and looked you right in the eye while he did it.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 55 min (plus 2 hrs chilling) | Servings: 10

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice water, as needed
For the caramel layer:
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
For the chocolate ganache:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60–70% cacao), finely chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Flaky sea salt, for finishing

Instructions

Make the crust. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in cold butter using a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the egg yolk and add ice water one tablespoon at a time, mixing just until the dough holds together. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Press and blind bake. Preheat oven to 375°F. Press the chilled dough evenly into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Line with parchment and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 15 minutes, remove weights and parchment, then bake another 8–10 minutes until the crust looks dry and set. Let cool completely.
Make the caramel. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, cook the sugar, swirling the pan occasionally (do not stir), until it melts into a deep amber caramel, about 10–12 minutes. Carefully add the butter piece by piece, whisking constantly — the mixture will bubble vigorously. Once butter is fully incorporated, slowly pour in the warm cream, whisking continuously. Stir in flaky salt. Pour the caramel into the cooled crust and spread evenly. Refrigerate 30 minutes until set.
Make the ganache. Place chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to simmer. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let stand 2 minutes, then stir gently from the center outward until completely smooth and glossy.
Assemble and chill. Pour the ganache over the set caramel layer and spread gently to the edges. Sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt. Refrigerate at least 1 1/2 hours, or until the ganache is fully set and sliceable.
Serve. Remove the tart from the pan, slice with a sharp knife (wiped clean between cuts), and serve at cool room temperature. The tart keeps, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chocolate Caramel Tart — For the Traditions Worth Repeating