chocolate dulce de leche pretzel tart

Yesterday was Baked Sunday Mornings. Not the first, but the first since I became aware of this baking group. Basically, they are baking their way through the second Baked book, Classic American Dessert Reinvented, and every second Sunday, all the bloggers that participated post their dessert before noon. Simple enough, right? I love the Baked recipes, so obviously, I joined the group. And for the past two weeks, everybody's been baking the Malted Crisp Tart.

I fully intended to bake it too. I was going to make it into individual tarts. And I was debating whether to buy little tart pans, or use the mini cheesecake mold pan that I have. And then I realized that no one I know likes whoppers or maltesers. And I don't really enjoy Rice Krispies, especially dry. *shudder* In all the post I read trying to figure out how many mini tarts the recipe would make, all the bloggers were saying how this recipe dirties every single dish in the house. And as we know... the Bourbonnatrix doesn't do the dishes. So I decided to skip this recipe.

But I had read about tarts for a good week, and now... I wanted a tart! And I actually have a pan that I've used exactly once, at the only Christmas dinner I ever hosted, 5 plus years ago. So a tart I was going to have. Thankfully I found a nice tart picture on one of the food pics galleries. Amandeleine to the rescue! An amazing looking pretzel-chocolate-caramel tart. You've got crunchy and creamy, salty and sweet, chocolate and caramel. What else could you want?

The recipe is simple enough, but there's a lot of waiting for stuff to chill. Combine ingredients for the crust. Chill. Roll it out. Chill. Bake it. Let it cool. Brush with melted chocolate. Chill. Prepare ganache, fill the crust. Chill. Now here, she would make caramel. I'm just going to open a jar of Dulce de Leche. Spread on ganache, sprinkle with more pretzels and drizzle with leftover ganache, and then, guess what? Chill. Then you can eat it. And apparently, it keeps for 2 days covered in the fridge!

Chocolate Dulce de Leche Pretzel Tart

Adapted from Amandeleine

Pretzel Crust
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups coarsely crushed thin pretzels plus an additional 1/4 cup for topping
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Ganache
3/4 cup whipping cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 jar Dulce de Leche

Directions

Crust: Beat the butter with 3/4 cup of the pretzels and the powdered sugar at low speed until creamy. Beat in the flour and egg. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of pretzels, being sure to leave some pretzel pieces intact. Flatten the dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap (dough will be very sticky) and refrigerate until chilled, at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough between the sheets of plastic wrap to a 12-inch round. Peel off the top sheet and invert the dough over a 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Leave the plastic wrap on to press the dough into the corners and patch any tears by trimming the overhanging dough and pressing it into holes. Refrigerate the shell for 30 minutes or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line the shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights (or dry beans in my case). Bake for about 30 minutes, until nearly set. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the tart shell is firm; cover the edge with foil if it darkens too much. Let the shell cool completely. Brush the melted chocolate over the bottom and up the side and refrigerate for 10 minutes, until set.

Ganache: Meanwhile, bring cream to boil in heavy small saucepan. Pour over chopped chocolate, let stand a few minutes and whisk until smooth. Spread 1 cup chocolate filling in prepared crust. Refrigerate until firm, about 45 minutes. Reserve remaining filling.

Spoon Dulce de Leche over ganache, leveling with a spatula. Sprinkle 1/4 cup crushed pretzels over caramel. Pipe or drizzle reserved chocolate filling decoratively over caramel and pretzels (if chocolate is too firm to pour, warm slightly over low heat). Refrigerate tart until caramel is firm, at least 1 hour.