Pastry caramel tarts with hokey pokey

Babiche Martens

The caramel can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until needed — just keep your fingers out! When it comes to spreading on the base, warm the caramel to room temperature.

Just before serving, sprinkle the tart with hokey pokey straight to the plate, ready to go. As an alternative try topping with salt flakes or berries. This recipe can also be made into 24 mini tarts if you need a sweet treat for a number of people. However you choose to serve them, they are divine.

Pastry

1 cup	Flour
75 g	Butter
¼ cup	Icing sugar
¼ cup	Ground almonds
1	Egg yolk
½ tsp	Vanilla essence

Caramel

½ cup	Water
2 cups	Sugar
100 g	Butter, cut into small cubes
½ cup	Sour cream

Chocolate ganache topping and hokey pokey

½ cup	Cream
100 g	Chocolate, broken into pieces (Main)
2 Tbsp	Golden syrup
100 g	Sugar
1 tsp	Baking soda
1 bowl	Whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 180C.
2. To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, icing sugar and almonds into a kitchen processor. Blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yolk and vanilla, blitz again until your dough is formed. Add a tablespoon of cold water if necessary. Roll the dough on a lightly floured bench and line 6 x 8cm tins. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes, then bake blind. Cool.
3. To make the caramel, place the water and sugar in a pot. Cook the mixture until you have an amber-coloured syrup — about 10 minutes. Whisk in the butter and sour cream carefully — it may spit at you. Cool then spread evenly into your tart cases.
4. For the ganache, bring the cream to a boil then pour over the chocolate pieces and whisk until smooth. Cool before pouring over the caramel.
5. Put a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray. To make the hokey pokey, place the golden syrup and sugar in a heavy-based saucepan. Very slowly heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes then add the baking soda. Work quickly stirring then spoon on to your baking paper, spreading until smooth, it will harden within minutes. Break into pieces when cold to serve with the tarts.

More decadent dishes from Angela

• Bouillabaisse
• Snapper steaks with mustard sauce and truffle oil