Nailed It! Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart

This Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart is the first recipe of a weekly "Nailed It" or "Failed It" challenge. After seeing other articles of baking projects gone wrong, I knew this idea would make a great blog series!

Seeing photos from those projects gone wrong brought tears to my eyes from laughing so hard! It reminded me of my time in pastry school and all the things that went wrong when learning different techniques I had never tried before. 

For this challenge I decided to use the same cookbook from week to week. I wanted a cookbook that would be friendly for most home cooks, meaning that most people would have access to the ingredients and the specialty bakeware. I settled on this“Bachour" by Pastry Chef, Antonio Bachour. Bachour is currently the Pastry Chef of the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort in Florida. He is well known for his pastry art and delicious recipes.

His recipe book, "Bachour", has about fifty-five recipes which is perfect for a weekly series. This book is designed for professional chefs, so I modified these recipes slightly for an average home cook. The goal is to create the recipe and still present them as beautifully as in the book.

Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart

For this first challenge I definitely“Nailed It”on Bachour’s Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart. These easy chocolate tarts have a gooey Dulce de Leche filling topped with a creamy layer of chocolate neatly nestled in a chocolate flavored tart. The recipe's not difficult to make; all it takes is good quality chocolate and heavy cream and milk. You probably have most of the ingredients in your refrigerator or pantry already.

I love a good tart, and I really feel like it's something that everyone should try. You know what I'm talking about? That rich chocolate flavor is just perfect with the crispy crust - not to mention the gooey goodness inside.

Ingredients For the Dark Chocolate Tart

• Butter: Make sure to use unsalted butter. We want to be the ones to determine the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• Eggs
• All purpose flour
• Cocoa Powder: Make sure to use a great quality cocoa powder.
• Baking Powder
• Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Milk: Use whole milk.
• Heavy whipping cream
• 64% and 70% Chocolate

Tips to Make the Tart Dough

The biggest challenge I encountered was with the tart dough. The recipes called for a 3”in. ring mold. A 3" ring mold isn’t common to have in a general home kitchen, so I tried this recipe a few times with a standard 3" tart pan. Most of the molds were standard fluted molds which worked perfectly for the recipe. Silicone baking tart pans are another option that could work with the right size. You want to make sure the mold is deep enough to allow room for the filling. For my final attempt, I went with the 3” ring molds for the presentation of the final tarts. 

The original recipe yielded 24 servings. I scaled down the recipe to make 6 Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tarts. I made a few minor modifications to the recipe to adjust for the reduction of some key ingredients. Overall, it was an easy chocolate tart recipe!

This recipe has a lot of waiting and cooling going on. So you definitely want to plan your time if you are looking to make this for a special occasion. If I needed this for Saturday, I’d plan to make this on Friday and then on Saturday you need to take it out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before you want to eat it.

Steps to Make The Tart Dough

1. In your stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and salt.
2. Slowly add the eggs, be sure to scrape down the sides
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. Slowly add to the butter mixture.
4. Don’t overmix the dough. Remove from the mixer, flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic and chill the  dough for at least 3 hours in the refrigerator.
5. Once cool, roll the dough out, and line your tart pan or ring molds. And put back in the refrigerator to cool for another hour.
6. Remove from the refrigerator and bake. Let these cool for about an hour before filling with the dulce de leche and chocolate.

The Chocolate Filling

For the chocolate filling, I always advise people to use the best chocolate you can. It truly can make a difference in the flavor. I use Valhrona for almost all of my chocolate needs. Don’t use chocolate chips for this recipe. Head to the market and find the best chocolate bar your budget allows. Trust me on this one, you won’t regret it.

This recipe calls for 64% and 70% chocolate. The percentage tells me the cacao content. This is the weight of the bar that comes from cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. Which combined is cocoa mass. For example, if we are using 64% chocolate, then 36% percent of the chocolate comes from non-chocolate items like cane sugar, milk powder, and vanilla. Most chocolate bars will tell you the percentage of chocolate on the wrapper right on the front label. Anything above 60% would make a great chocolate filling for this recipe.

What is Dulce de Leche?

Dulce de Leche is a South American confection made by heating a can of sweetened condensed milk into a creamy caramel sauce. Condensed milk has a higher sugar content, so when the can is heated it turns into a thick, sweet caramel like sauce. It’s easier to make than caramel and the texture is just right for the filling in these tarts. You’ll see how perfectly it pairs with the chocolate flavors!

Decorating the Chocolate Tart

For the decorative top, you could easily use a piece of chocolate from your favorite local candy maker. For my decorative toppings, I tempered chocolate and cut it into squares. I used leftover Dulce de Leche to secure the chocolate square to the top of the tart. I topped it off with a drop of Dulce de Leche and a few pieces of sea salt.

 Expert Tips:

• Use high quality bittersweet chocolate. Scharffen Berger or Valhrona would be a great ingredient for this recipe.
• There are many ways to decorate this chocolate tart. You could go with the method we used, or if that just seems like too much, you could easily serve without a topping or fruit could be a nice addition. Even a simple scoop of whipped cream would be nice.
• Remove the tart from the refrigerator 15-20 minutes prior to serving.
• To cut the tart: Dip your knife in hot water, wipe it off to dry, and then cut the tart. Wipe the knife clean between cuts and keep dipping into hot water as it cools.

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Chocolate Dulce de Leche Tart

This decadent tart features dulce de leche topped with a rich chocolate filling. If you're looking for an easy recipe to fulfill your chocolate cravings with a French flair then this is just for you.

5 from 17 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, French

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 5 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 Tarts

Calories: 537kcal

Author: Serena

Ingredients

Dulce De Leche

• ▢ 1 can condensed milk

Tart Crust

• ▢ 1 ⅓ oz butter
• ▢ 2 ½ tablespoon sugar
• ▢ pinch of salt
• ▢ ½ large egg
• ▢ ½ cup all purpose flour
• ▢ 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder

The Chocolate Filling

• ▢ 3 ½ oz milk
• ▢ 7 oz heavy whipping cream
• ▢ 3 ½ oz sugar
• ▢ 1 egg yolk
• ▢ 1 ½ large egg
• ▢ 6 oz 64% chocolate chopped
• ▢ 3 oz 70% chocolate chopped

Instructions

For the Dulce de Leche

• Take the label off the can of sweetened condensed milk and place the can into a large pot. Fill the pot with water until the water is about 1 inch above the top of the can.
• Bring water to a simmer and continue to cook over low heat for about 4 hours. Continue to refill the water level as necessary.
• Once done, set aside to cool.

Tart Crust

• Cream butter, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Slowly add the eggs, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
• Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder and add to the butter mixture and beat lightly until combined. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before rolling into ⅛-inch thickness.
• Cut dough into rounds and place in 3-inch ring molds.
• Preheat oven to 325°
• Refrigerate the finished shells for an hour to let the dough rest, then bake for 20 minutes at 325° F.

For the Chocolate Filling

• Bring milk, cream and sugar to a scald in a medium sized pot.
• Whisk yolks and eggs to combine in a small bowl.
• Once the milk is at a scald, pour it over the egg mixture to temper. Be sure to constantly be whisking this so you don’t scramble the eggs.
• Stir and return the mixture to the pot to continue to cook over low heat until it reaches 160°F, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat, pour over the chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Chill.

To assemble tart

• Preheat oven to 300°F.
• Fill half of each tart shell with dulce de leche and top with chocolate filling. Bake for 7 minutes.
• Chill for about 2 hours once done baking.

Notes

Recipe Source: SerenaLissy.com

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database via Spoonacular API, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators. While this information can be helpful in estimating the nutritional information of a recipe, it is by no means accurate or official and is not evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Nutrition

Serving: 1Servi | Calories: 537kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 19g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 128mg | Sodium: 89mg | Potassium: 430mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 663IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 117mg | Iron: 6mg

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