Ingredients
Serves 10 (makes 20)Tart cases:
2½ cups plain flour
½ cup Dutch cocoa
½ cup sugar
½ tspn sea salt
115gr cold, unsalted butter, cubed
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Filling:
1 cup sugar
½ cup thickened cream
3 tbsps tawny port
30gr cold, unsalted butter, cubed
30gr good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
1 cup blanched, roasted, salted macadamias, chopped
Sea salt for sprinkling
Mascarpone, to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC
Process dry ingredients for pastry in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. With motor running, add eggs until mixture just comes together.
Turn dough out onto a work surface and bring together. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Roll pastry out between two sheets of baking paper to 3mm thickness. Using a 7-8cm cutter, cut out 20 circles, re-rolling pastry as necessary and refrigerating cut circles as you go. Push circles into small tartlet cases, prick bottoms with a fork and refrigerate again until cold.
Bake until firm, about 12 minutes. Let cool, remove from tins and place on a tray.
Caramel Filling:
Heat sugar and ½ cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cook without stirring until syrup comes to a boil and boil until mixture becomes dark amber in colour. Remove from heat and carefully stir in cream and port. The mixture will hiss and spatter, so be very careful. Add butter and chocolate. Let cool until thickened but still pourable.
Spoon 1 teaspoon of macadamias into each tart case. Top with caramel mixture and sprinkle with remaining macadamias and sea salt. Place in the fridge until ready to serve. Top with a small dollop of mascarpone just before serving.
Notes: Nuts, chocolate and salt combine in this recipe to give a delicious contrast between sweet, gooey caramel and the salty crunch of the nuts. The port gives it all a grown-up flavour! The salt actually highlights and intensifies the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel.
You could replace the port with Spanish black sherry or your favourite liqueur. Use thick cream instead of mascarpone if you prefer.