These Caramel Egg Tarts may look like a bit of a challenge to bake with kids but they are actually pretty simple.
There’s 3 stages to the tarts;
- Pastry – the perfect cooking activity for little ones.
- Caramel – grown up job if you’re cooking with younger kids but older ones can totally embrace this challenge.
- Chocolate ganache – bit of heat but younger kids can get very involved with supervision. Again older kids can boss this.
You will need
4 individual tart tins or one 8″ loose bottom tart tin, baking paper and either baking beans or dried lentils to blind bake.
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 120g butter
- 250g plain flour
- 30g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- Tin of condensed milk (397g)
- 50g salted butter
- 50g light brown sugar
- 100g dark chocolate
- 100ml double cream
- 50g, white chocolate (optional)
- At least 2 caramel eggs
For the pastry
Kids love making pastry – fact! If yours are anything like mine, the fun starts at making a tremendous mess rubbing the flour and butter together and really kicks in once they start eating raw clumps of dough… but as the caramel making is a bit of a grown up job its best to turn a blind eye to the mess and let them enjoy the pastry mess making.
So in this fashion rub the flour and sugar together in a large bowl until it resembles chunky breadcrumbs. Add the egg and mix to form a firm dough (if it’s a little on the dry side add a few drops of very cold water gradually until the pastry comes together).
Roll the dough out to about the thickness of a pound coin and place into the tart tin(s). Don’t worry about neatness here. If need be, just press the pastry in, making sure it comes up the sides of the tin and there are no holes where the caramel might leak out later.
Cover the pastry with a square of baking paper and fill with the baking beans or dried lentils.
Bake for 10 minutes, then carefully (grown-up-job alert) remove the beans/lentils and baking paper, and return to the oven for another 5 minutes until the pastry base is golden.
Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin to cool completely.
To make the caramel
Add the condensed milk, butter and sugar to a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.
Turn the heat up to medium and continue to stir until the mixture has thickened (if you’re baking with younger kids you may want to utilise screen time whilst you crack on with this but older kids will have no problem with the constant stirring).
When the caramel is thick enough that you can draw a line through to separate it with a spoon and it takes a couple of seconds to come back together, you’re good to go!
Gently pour the caramel over the pastry and leave to cool while you make the ganache.
For the ganache
Break up the chocolate into chunks and place into a heatproof bowl.
In the microwave heat the cream to almost boiling and pour over the chocolate. Leave it to sit for 30 seconds or so then stir until you have a smooth thick chocolate cream.
Spoon about 2 tablespoons of ganache over the top of the caramel.
If using white chocolate to decorate, melt using short bursts of 10-15 seconds in the microwave and drizzle on top in whatever style you fancy.
Finally chop the caramel eggs in half along the joined edge and place on top of the tarts.
Serve with a good pour of double cream if your feeling extra 😉
