Caramel and Thornton's Chocolate Tart

A couple of weekends ago when I had the house to myself, I decided to take advantage of a quiet kitchen to do lots of baking. As well of making chocolate orange genoise cupcakes, I made two different flavours of bread (in three shapes) and to top it all I made a caramel tart topped with loads of Thornton's chocolates. I had planned to make a halloween themed Bakewell Tart using an adaption of the recipe in Luis Troyano book 'Bake it Great'. However after making lots of bread and a pastry case I ran out of steam when it came to the frangipange filling so opted for caramel and chocolate instead.

As I was baking I had a friend visit for a catchup so sent her home with this tart and a bag full of bread. I didn't try any of the tart as I have recently joined slimming world and the thought of calculating how many 'syns' were in a slice gave me a headache. However I was reliably informed that the tart was delicious.

I topped my tart with lots of delicious Thornton's truffles and caramels, however if you don't have a years supply of chocolate to get through you could top it with a chocolate ganache or just good old melted chocolate for a pastry version of millionaires shortbread.

I also cheated and used a tin of ready made caramel that I had in the cupboard. You can use ready made caramel like I did or you can make it yourself. You can find a caramel recipe and instructions here... There is lots that you could experiment with on this recipe, you could flavour your pastry if you wanted or you could flavour your caramel. And of course, add your own touches and style with the decoration.

Anyway, less about me - time to get baking!


This recipe makes enough pastry to line a 28cm tart tin. You can make it any shape you like, I had a new rectangular tin so chose to use this.

To make Luis Troyano's sweet pastry case you will need:

• 215g Plain flour
• 30g Icing sugar
• 120g Unsalted butter
• 2 Egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp cold water

You will also need:

• 1 tin of caramel (or 1 quantity of homemade caramel)
• Your chosen chocolate decoration

To make the pastry case:

• Put all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also do this in a blender.
• Add the egg yolks and the water and bring the dough together. Knead the dough gently and only for a very short period of time until the dough is consistent in texture.
• Wrap in cling film and chill for at least half an hour. You can make pastry up to two days in advance just make sure you let it come back to room temperature before trying to roll it.
• Line your chosen tart tin with baking parchment on the bottom. Roll out your pastry until it is around 3mm thick, lay it over your tart tin and gently ease the pastry and press into the sides of the tin. Use a fork to prick the base of your case all over.

• Leave the excess pastry attached.
• Line with baking parchment or clingfilm, fill with baking beans and blind bake at 190c fan for 20 minutes. After this time take the baking beans and lining out and bake for another 507 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, trim off the excess pastry and follow your case to cool before filling it.

To assemble:

• Fill your pastry case with caramel and then adorn with your chosen decoration. If you are using melted chocolate or a ganache glaze allow the caramel to set in the fridge for 30 minutes first.

And that's all there is too it.

Let me know how you get on.

Happy baking - Rach x