For those who don't like chocolate, this hazelnut caramel tart by Guillaume Mabilleau and Olivia Patisse is the ideal treat! A hazelnut streusel is surrounded by sweet hazelnut cake and a spiral of soft vanilla caramel and a ring of shortbread hazelnuts. The smooth sticky sweetness of caramel made with sweetened evaporated milk and the subtle crunch of hazelnuts combine to form a symphonic and undeniably decadent praline-like dessert.
To enhance the holiday flavours, spice the cake layer or caramel with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove or add a few spice poached pears or apples for some added freshness. If you love chocolate, feel free to incorporate it with a glaze of ganache, a few curls of chocolate, or some dark chocolate miniature chocolate chips scattered in the cake batter. Regardless of how you choose to embellish it, this stunning dessert will certainly please everyone at a holiday meal!
By Olivia Patisse (translated from the original French)
Recipe for a 6 person tart, 16cm circle.
Soft vanilla caramel
66g sugar
40g of glucose
80g cream
40g sweetened condensed milk
1/2 vanilla bean
106g butter
A pinch of fleur de sel
Make a caramel: in a small saucepan, heat the sugar and glucose with a little water, when the sugar is dissolved increase the heat and cook to 170 ° C.
Remove from heat and carefully add the cream and the sweetened condensed milk. Return the mixture to low heat to melt any pieces that crystalized.
Once everything has dissolved, let the caramel cool a little and add the butter, vanilla and fleur de sel. Stir well, transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film (ensuring it is touching the surface of the caramel to prevent a film from forming) and reserve in the fridge.
Hazelnut streusel
26g butter
26g brown sugar
33g of hazelnut flour or ground hazelnuts
26g flour
Salt
Beat the butter with the brown sugar, add the hazelnut powder, a pinch of salt. Gently incorporate the flour. Spread mixture into a 14-15cm circle (smaller than the pan in which we will cook the cake). Bake for 15 minutes at 160 ° C.
The sweet hazelnut
43g whole eggs
20g of egg yolks
63g sugar
80g of hazelnut flour or ground hazelnuts
a pinch of salt
20g flour
36g melted butter
28g of egg whites
28g brown sugar
Whisk the whole eggs and the yolks with the sugar, add the ground hazelnuts, salt, flour and melted butter.
Whip the egg whites, tightening them with the sugar until medium peaks form. Gently fold them into the hazelnut mixture. Pour 100g of batter over the hazelnut streusel, in a 16cm pan, prepare by greasing the pan, adding flour and then tapping to remove the excess. I used all the batter, honestly it was very good but in the official recipe it only requires 100g. Bake for 30 minutes at 160 ° C.
Shortbread hazelnuts
63g of hazelnuts
40g of sugar
7g of water
1/3 of a vanilla bean
a pinch of salt
In a small saucepan, cook the sugar with the water at 121 ° C, remove from heat and add the hazelnuts. Mix until the sugar recrystallizes:
Assembly
Sprinkle the edge of the cake with snow sugar (2/3 icing sugar, 1/3 cornstarch).
Slacken the caramel a little by stirring it well, then pipe it onto the cake in a spiral shape using a small round nozzle.
Place the shortbread hazelnuts around.
Decorate with a chocolate square, gold leaf etc, ...
Take the cake out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.
