Author Notes
Recently, I bought a candy thermometer as I was thinking of making caramels, instead of caramels I thought of making caramel sauce. Instead of traditional almond based crust for tart I made chocolate tart with hazelnuts for that nutella effect. Fill the tart with this wonderful banana cardamom caramel and top it of with chocolate mousse. First, I tried to top it of ice-cream, but I was not happy with that. So, I whipped up some heavy cream with chocolate and that gave a good effect. I hope everyone likes it. —Devangi Raval
Test Kitchen Notes
With three distinct layers: a hazelnut, chocolate tart base, smothered with a rich caramel banana sauce subtly flavored with cardamom, and topped by a rich, chocolate, coffee mousse, there's something in this dish for everyone! The 10 people that tasted this dessert gave it a solid A-/B+. Remarks ranged from many "OMG"s, to "could use more cardamom", "less banana", and "more coffee flavor". Everyone agreed that the coffee chocolate mousse is the best part of the dish. The tart base was more cake like than a traditional shortbread crust. Mashing and straining the banana is a critical step to ensure a smooth caramel. A dish worthy of a dinner party for sure! —Food52
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Ingredients
- Chocolate Tart
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1 cup
AP Flour
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2/3 cup
Hazelnuts, toasted and husked, finely grind to powder
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1
Stick chilled unsalted butter cut into pieces
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4 tablespoons
sugar
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1.5 tablespoons
Cocoa powder
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1 teaspoon
Baking powder
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1
egg yolk
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Pinch
Salt
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2 tablespoons
Cold Milk or heavycream
- For the Banana - Cardamom caramel Sauce and Chocolate mousse
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1 cup
Sugar
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3.5 tablespoons
butter
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3/4 cup
Cream
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1 teaspoon
Salt
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1/4 cup
Water
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2 teaspoons
Cardamom powder
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2
Bananas mashed and strained
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1 cup
Milk chocolate or dark chocolate as per your liking
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1.5 cups
Heavy whipping cream
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1.5 teaspoons
Coffee
Directions
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Place sugar and hazelnuts in bowl of food processor and process until nuts are finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt along with cocoa powder , baking powder and pulse once or twice to blend. Scatter butter pieces over mixture and pulse 7 or 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. I used my brand new Kitchen Aid mixer which I recently received as a gift.yay!
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In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolk, milk . Pour egg mixture over flour mixture and pulse 5 or 6 times until dough just comes together. Scrape dough out onto work surface and gently knead 6 to 8 times, until smooth. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled.
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Position oven rack in center of oven. Heat to 375°F. Arrange tart pan on baking sheet. Place chilled dough on work surface and roll out to large round that is about 1/8-inch thick. Drape dough over tart pan, gently pressing it into the interior of the pan. Roll rolling pin over dough and remove excess dough. Press dough into pan evenly, removing excess dough, if necessary. Line the pan with 9 inches round of parchment paper and fill with dried beans or rice. Blind bake** tarts for 15 minutes until crust begins to turn golden brown at edges. Remove weights and parchment paper from pan and bake it for another 10 minutes or so till you see it is baked evenly. Let tart shell cool while preparing the filling.
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Place sugar and water in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally or until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring; increase heat to high and cook until sugar caramelizes and turns a golden amber color. Remove from heat and carefully add cream, stirring until smooth (return to heat for a minute if a few lumps remain). Stir in butter until melted. Transfer to cup with pouring spout. Cover and refrigerate until the tart shell cools down and we are ready to assemble.
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Now , till the caramel sauce cools down a little bit prepare chocolate mousse.I melt the chocolate on a double boiler or in a microwave stirring in between and about for one minute then stirred and another one minute. Add the heavy cream to the melted chocolate and add a teaspoon of coffee and whip it up with the help of a blender. (instead of whipping the cream and folding the chocolate I mixed both the things and whipped it together) .
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Now, take the Tart shell, fill it with caramel sauce and let it cool a little bit in the fridge or if you feel it is cooled enough and you can spread the chocolate mousse on top of it then go ahead. So , layer it with chocolate mousse. Spread the mousse properly and evenly. Decorate it with bananas or hazelnuts. Chill it for half an hour or if you can wait unlike me then for an hour and serve it with a dollop of whipped cream.
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