Chocolate Caramel Tartlets

Lately I have found myself slightly more obsessed with high tea than usual, to the extent that I’ve been requesting high tea recipe books from the library to read. This has been a dangerous move as I’ve spent lots of time (when I should be doing other things) pouring over the pages and marking recipes that I want to try. I find a huge conflict in myself in how much I enjoy making/eating sweet foods and how much I also value healthy eating and a balanced lifestyle with exercise. Everything in moderation I suppose. So in saying that, I want to share my favourite recipe that I’ve found so far – Chocolate Caramel Tartlets. They are so cute and yummy (and tiny so you don’t need to worry about your waistline unless you eat 10 in one sitting). I really need to find some ‘healthy’ high tea recipes (if there is such a thing)…

 Chocolate Caramel Tartlets

Ingredients:
Tart cases
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
125g butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla essence

Caramel filling
1/2 a 395g tin sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
80g butter
2 tblsp golden syrup

Chocolate topping
100g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa)
15g butter

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease two 12-hole mini muffin tins.
2. For the cases, mix all of the dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Add melted butter and vanilla essence, mix until combined. Press firmly into tins to cover the bases and sides. (NB. The recipe I used suggested that the base mix would make double the tart cases to what I made, so I guess it depends how thinly you can spread the base. I quite like a thicker base because it means the tart isn't so sweet with so much caramel. If you do make more cases you will need to increase the amount of caramel filling and chocolate topping that you make).
3. Bake the tart cases for 12 minutes, or until light golden and crisp. Every oven is different, so keep an eye on them.
4. To make the caramel filling, mix all of the filling ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes or until the mixture darkens - make sure you are stirring it constantly so it doesn't catch on the bottom of your saucepan.
5. Spoon the filling into the tartlet cases straightaway and bake for 5-8 minutes until caramel is bubbling around the edges.
6. Allow to cool for 10 minutes  and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. If you have greased the tins they should come out easily enough - I just turned the tins upside down and tapped the bottom of the tin.



Tartlets after the caramel filling has been baked.




7. For the topping, break the chocolate up into small pieces into a microwave safe bowl and add butter. Melt in microwave for 30 second bursts on medium, stirring in-between, until chocolate has mostly melted. Continue stirring until topping is smooth. Using a teaspoon, spoon each tart with enough topping to cover the top of the tart. Leave to set.

Makes 24. Apparently they're meant to keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks, but mine haven't lasted that long...

Recipe adapted from High Tea: Recipes with a Sense of Occasion.