A chocolate and caramel tart you’re sure to go nuts for

These tarts came together out of necessity. Some friends were coming to dinner and I needed to make a dessert. I had chocolate dough in the freezer, salted caramel in the fridge and someone had recently given me a large container of salted macadamias. Combining the first two was a no-brainer – I’ve often made chocolate salted caramel tarts before – but the macadamias took the dessert to another level.

Chocolate, macadamia and salted caramel tarts

These tarts are small but rich, not just because of the gooey salted caramel but also due to the macadamia nuts, which have a high fat content. I use lightly salted macadamias but the salt content varies by producer. If the ones you have are too salty, rinse them well before toasting them (or, you can use unsalted nuts). It’s essential that the nuts be toasted right before adding them to the caramel, so they are still hot; if they are cold (or even room temperature), they will cool down the caramel too much, and make it stiff, rather than gently fluid.

I use small brioche moulds for these tarts. If you use another type of mould, it’s easy to estimate how much filling you need. Fill one of the moulds with macadamias, mounding the nuts slightly, then weigh the contents. Multiply that by the number of tarts you are making and mix in 25 per cent more of the salted caramel (in other words, the ratio is three parts nuts to four parts caramel).

The recipes for the dough (which is adapted from the Pie and Pastry Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum) and caramel yield more than you need for 12 tarts, but they are good staples to have on hand. You can reheat the caramel in the microwave or over a low flame on the stove.

For the bittersweet chocolate dough:
410 grams plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for rolling
50 grams unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
190 grams icing sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt
250 grams unsalted butter, chilled
2 large eggs, chilled