Here at The Mouse House, autumn is officially pie season. From pumpkin to pecan, you can almost always find me rolling out a crust at least once a week. (Stay tuned soon for a killer recipe for a showstopping Mile High Apple Pie!)

Now, if you’re like me, you’re bound to have some leftover pie dough on your hands at one point or another. (How do you like to use it up?)

Normally, I usually just cut it into strips, dust them with cinnamon sugar, and bake them off like little cookies.

Here’s a slightly spiffier alternative, which is almost as easy to throw together. This short and sweet treat makes a great fast snack for a hungry army of kids—or unexpected company.

For this cookie, I cut rounds of pie dough, fill them with whatever jam I have on hand, fold them over into half moons, and seal with egg wash.

If you’re having a cookie emergency, you can even use store-bought dough. I won’t tell. If you want to make the dough from scratch, take a peek at the crust for my Blueberry Pie here. Just cut the recipe in half unless you want a metric ton of cookies.

Other fillings

I love these cookies with plain ole raspberry jam. Here are some other ideas for fillings:

• Marmalade, dusted with fresh orange zest
• Blueberry jam, dotted with fresh lemon zest
• Nutella, sprinkled with chopped, toasted hazelnuts
• Maple sugar candy with finely chopped pecans
• Peanut butter with a tiny bit of jelly
• Fresh lemon curd

This one is more method than recipe. A regular single, homemade pie crust recipe should yield about 14-16 cookies, depending on how large you cut the rounds.

Use a biscuit cutter that’s about 3 inches across. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if you like.

Mini Turnover Cookies

Pie dough (click here for my recipe)
A little flour for your board
Jam
1 egg, beaten
Sanding sugar, if you like

Roll out the pie dough

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Beat the egg in a small bowl and set aside. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Roll the pie dough out on a floured board.

You want to get it thin, just like you would for a regular pie.

Cut the rounds

With a biscuit cutter (or a glass), cut out the rounds. I like to use a cutter with a fluted edge.

Fill the dough

Put a small blob of jam (or other filling) in the center of a piece of dough. For my 3-inch rounds, I used maybe a scant teaspoon of jam. The trick is filling them without overfilling them. (How much is too much? You’ll find out really quickly when you go to seal them and you have jam oozing out the edges. If you overfill one, don’t fret. Just open it up, remove some, and try again.)

Using your (very clean) finger or a pastry brush, paint a circle of beaten egg around the edge of the dough. This will help to keep the cookie sealed as it bakes.

Seal the cookies

Flop the dough over so that it forms a half moon. Press down on the edges to seal well. If a little jam leaks out of one corner, don’t sweat it. Just wipe it off and keep going. If a lot leaks out, open up the dough, remove some jam, wipe the edges clean, re-egg it, and seal again.

Set the filled cookie on your prepared pan. Poke a couple of small holes in the top. (These will let excess steam out as they bake.)

Repeat with the rest, until you’ve filled them all. Then ball up the remaining dough scraps, roll them out, cut more rounds, and fill those, too. (Basically, do this until you’ve used all the dough.)

Brush with egg wash & bake

Brush the tops of the cookies with beaten egg. Sprinkle with sanding sugar (or chopped nuts, depending on your filling) now, if you like. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

They’re done when they’re puffed and golden brown on the edges and bottom. When they’re done, yank the pan out of the oven.

Cool for 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

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Oh, I’m sorry! Didn’t see you there! How embarrassing. I seem to be covered in pie.

Seriously, though: Be still my heart. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but this has got to be one of the best desserts I’ve made in a long time.

Cookie crust, chocolate filling, whipped cream on top

Yep, even better than that Chocolate Caramel Tart. (And yes, this is another recipe from Saveur magazine. There’s something about their food photography that compels me to make a big, chocolate-y mess of my kitchen at least once a month.)

I should admit: I have a special spot in my heart for old-fashioned desserts—especially if it’s the kind of thing that you’re likely to find in the spinning dessert case at a 1950s-style diner.

This pie totally fits the bill.

The crust is made from chocolate cookie crumbs held together with brown sugar and butter which makes it crisp and caramel-y.

The chocolate filling is smooth and velvety, with intense chocolate flavor. (Think chocolate pudding on steroids.)

It’s insanely rich, and thickened with a combination of egg yolks and a little bit of cornstarch.

The whipped cream topping is light, airy, and slightly sweet.

Honestly? The whole thing is ridiculously delicious and it took all my will power to not gobble down the whole pie in one sitting.

A note on ingredients for chocolate cream pie

I made the crust using Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafers. You know: The kind your grandmother probably used to make that whipped cream refrigerator cake. (I’m going to do one of those soon, just because they’re so much fun to make.)

Most American grocery stores will carry them. If you can’t find ‘em, just use any plain, firm chocolate cookie (no toppings or fillings).

Try (try!) not to eat too many. You’ll want to use pretty much the whole 9-0unce box.

The recipe calls for half-and-half (10%-18% butterfat). If you can’t find the right stuff, make your own by combining 50 percent milk and 50 percent cream.

Use your favorite kind of good chocolate. (Remember, the chocolate provides the main flavor.) Make chopping easy and slip free by using a serrated bread knife.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Based on the original recipe from Saveur magazine, Issue #126

Crust
8 Tbls. butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 (9-oz.) package chocolate wafer cookies

Filling
3 1/2 cups half-and-half
8 Tbls. butter, cut into hunks
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
9 egg yolks
9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Topping
2 cups heavy cream
2 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Yields 1 (9-inch) pie

Grease a 9-inch glass pie plate lightly and set it aside. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Make the cookie crumbs

Grab your cookies. You need to turn them into cookie crumbs. You can do this in a food processor, but I usually just opt for the bag-and-bash method.

Bag-and-bash? Toss the cookies in a large, zip-top bag.

And whack away with a rolling pin until you’ve crushed them to bits.

Aim for the consistency of potting soil.

Make the Crust

Get the butter melting in a medium-sized pot over medium heat.

Toss in the brown sugar.

Whisk until the brown sugar is dissolved in the butter.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl.

Add the chocolate cookie crumbs.

Stir well to combine.

It will take a minute or two, but you should be able to moisten all the crumbs.

Like this.

Pour the mixture into your greased pie plate.

Smoosh the crumbs down and spread them out so they fill the pie plate.

You want the crumbs to come up the sides.

Then press the crumbs down more with the bottom of a measuring cup or glass.

Be sure to get around the edge of the pie plate, so the crust isn’t too, too thick there.

Slide a finger around the edge to knock off any extra crumbs. This will help the crust keep a nice edge when you serve it.

Pop the crust into the fridge for about 20 minutes to chill. Then bake in a 350-degree oven for 10-15 minutes, until set.

Yank it out of the oven and set it aside to cool.

Make the chocolate cream filling

Put the half-and-half in a 3-quart pot.

Set it on the stove over medium-high heat until it *just* starts to bubble (keep a good eye on it so it doesn’t scorch).

While it’s heating, combine the sugar and cornstarch in a large, heat-proof bowl. Whisk together until uniform. It will look kinda like baby powder.

Add the egg yolks to the sugar/cornstarch mixture.

Whisk until combined.

Pour the hot half-and-half into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. (Emphasis on *thin* here. You want to temper, i.e. raise, the temperature of the egg yolks gently. Pour it all in at once, and there’s a good chance the eggs will scramble.)

Keep pouring, whisking constantly, until you’ve added all the hot half-and-half.

Then pour the hot mixture back into the pot.

Make sure that your butter and chocolate are chopped, ready, and waiting.

Set the pot back on the stove over medium heat.

Whisk it constantly for maybe 4 minutes. It will thicken considerably. When it’s thick (it should coat the back of a spoon nicely), yank it off the heat.

Add the butter and chopped chocolate to the hot mixture in small handfuls. Whisk to melt and incorporate.

Keep adding the butter and chocolate in batches, whisking all the while, until it’s all in the pot.

When you’re done, you’ll have what looks like a big pot of hot chocolate pudding. Add the vanilla and whisk to incorporate.

Set a mesh strainer over a large bowl. Pour the mixture through the strainer. (This is to catch any bits of egg that may have solidified.)

Resist the urge to jump in the bowl and swim around with your mouth open.

Press a piece of plastic wrap to the top of the mixture while it’s hot.

Be sure to get right to the edges. The plastic wrap will keep the filling from developing a thick skin as it cools.

Pop the filling into the fridge for about 4 hours, or until chilled throughout. As it cools, it will thicken up.

Assemble the chocolate cream pie!

When the filling is chilled, yank it out of the fridge. Peel off the plastic wrap. Stir the filling until smooth.

Pour the filling into your prepared crust.

Smooth it down into a nice dome with a rubber spatula.

Whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla together until nice and thick.

You want the whipped cream to hold a stiff peak, like this:

Gently scoop the whipped cream onto the chocolate filling.

Smooth the whipped cream down so that it completely covers the chocolate filling.

Pop into the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.

Make the chocolate shavings

Now, you could totally just grate chocolate on top of this pie with a grater and serve it. To take it over the top, though, make these chocolate slivers.

Put your chocolate chips in a bowl.

Zap them in the microwave long enough to melt them (mine took about 2 minutes on high).

Stir the chips around until the chocolate is totally melted.

Put the melted chocolate on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper.

Spread it as thin as you can with a spatula.

Thin as in, really thin:

Pop it into the freezer for about 15 minutes, or until it’s totally solid again. (I draped mine over a baking dish because a plate wouldn’t fit…)

Yank it out of the freezer when the chocolate is hard.

Roll the paper up to break the chocolate into shards. If your shards come out a little clunky looking, like mine did, just chop them into slivers with a sharp knife.

Serve and enjoy!

Serve thick slices topped with chocolate slivers.

Enjoy!

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Hope you all had a fabulous holiday and new years!

The Angry Chef and I spent New Year’s Eve nestled in with the good folks from The Salem Insider and Rippin Kitten.

The company was outstanding. There was a roaring fire in the hearth. We had a handful of toasty cocktails. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better way to ring in the new year.

I only have one piece of unfinished business from 2009—and that’s where these tartlettes come in. I promised you guys the recipe for them a few weeks ago.

How do you decide what to bake for the editors of Bon Appetit?

That’s a toughie, right?

So, last month, you might remember that Bon Appetit invited us to head down to New York City for its Holiday Bake-Off Party. I was squeeking and tweeting about it for weeks.

December was really snowy, so I spent the first part of the month combing through my notebooks, going through ideas that ranged from cheesecakes to bundt cakes to all sorts of bon bons.

I spent a lot of time musing out my kitchen window about what to bring. (What would travel well on the train, what would be impressive enough, etc.)

After what seemed like an endless amount of fretting (I mean, come on: One of the judges was pastry chef Francois Payard), I settled on making my favorite Chocolate Caramel Tart in miniature form.

This post will give you a look at how I did that.

Praise for my tartlette pans

I used a bunch of these little guys (Wilton Nonstick 4 Inch Tartlette Pans). I can’t say enough about them. They don’t stick, they’re a perfect individual size, and they’re nice and sturdy.

Scaling a recipe sounds easy, right?

Sure. In theory.

Scaling this particular recipe wasn’t that hard, but it wasn’t as easy as you might think. It’s always a tricky thing when you try to make a recipe fit another size pan.

It took me a little while to figure out how to get the crusts just the right thickness.

(Little did I know that Payard would focus on the thickness of my crust. You gotta hand it to Lee Zalben for comparing the famous patissier to Simon Cowell in his article for Serious Eats.)

My first shot at filling the tart shells was waaaaaaay too thick.

I baked a few more batches, and whittled the thickness of the crust down considerably each time.

And, after fiddling around with the amount of dough in each pan, I think I got it just right. (My apologies, Monsieur Payard, but all my tasters agreed that this tart wants a slightly thicker crust to offset all that gorgeously gooey filling.)

On your mark, get set, bake (and bake, and bake…)!

So, I loaded the fridge with enough heavy cream and butter to keep an army of mice in tea and crumpets for a month, and started to practice.

I went through an obscene amount of butter.

And as delicious as these are, I don’t want to see another tart for a month. After baking dozens of them, I’m all set for now.

Notes

• This recipe makes 9 or 10 (4-inch) tartlettes, depending on how thick/thin you make the crust.
• Oh, also. My pictures below are a compilation of many (many, many) series of test tartlettes, so don’t go counting egg yolks looking for inconsistencies.
• For a complete step-by-step walkthrough of this technique, take a peek at how to make the larger version of this tart.

Chocolate Caramel Tartlettes

Adapted from Saveur magazine (this is the original recipe, doubled)

Crust
3 cups flour
10 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder (not sweetened hot chocolate mix)
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
20 Tbls. butter, diced and softened
1 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Caramel
3 cups sugar
6 Tbls. light corn syrup
12 Tbls. water
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
12 Tbls. butter
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 Tbls. creme fraiche

Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

French Grey sea salt, for garnish

Yields 9-10 (4-inch) tartlettes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease your tartlette pans and set them aside.

Make those pesky tartlette shells

Put the butter and confectioner’s sugar in the bowl of your mixer (or in a large mixing bowl if you’re mixing with a handheld, electric mixer.) Mix well until you have a smooth paste.

Toss in the egg yolks and vanilla. Beat til incorporated and fluffy looking.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, and kosher salt. Beat quickly until well combined.

(This is where the experimenting began.)

Flatten out your dough into a large round. Whack the dough into 10 pie slices with a pastry bencher or a large knife, just like you’re cutting a pizza. Don’t make yourself crazy. You’re just trying to divide the dough up into fairly even pieces.

Take one piece of dough and put it into a greased tartlette pan. Using your hands, smoosh it around so that it lines the pan completely in a thin layer.

Your dough will pop up over the edges of the pan a little.

Trim the excess dough off the top with a sharp paring knife.

Set the trimmings aside for now.

Smooth down the top edge a little, and be sure that the dough is fitted into the fluted edge of the pan.

You want the bottom crust to be about this thick. Just dig a little hole with your finger to check the thickness. You can smoosh the dough right back into place when you’re done.

Repeat with the rest of the dough, until all your tartlette pans are lined. With a fork, prick the dough all over on each tartlette. (These holes will allow steam to escape as the crusts bake�which helps keep them flat.)

Bake in your pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

Let them cool for about 15 minutes in the pans, then slip them out (carefully) and finish cooling on a rack.

If you don’t have enough dough to make an extra tartlette, roll the dough out, cut it into squares, and bake for about 15 minutes for cookies. (Want to be sinful? Dip them in dark chocolate.)

Make the caramel

Make the caramel according to my original instructions.

Ladle the caramel into the cool tartlette shells, until it just about reaches the top. (Leave maybe an 1/4 of an inch or so.) Chill for 4 or 5 hours.

Make the chocolate ganache

Make the ganache using the original method, and carefully spoon it on to the hardened caramel, spreading it to the edges.

Pop them into the fridge to set up for another 4 or 5 hours.

Make the candied orange peel

Lastly, I chose to garnish these tartlettes with thin slivers of candied orange peel. I made the peel according to this recipe.

After it had dried overnight, I sliced it into thin strips and tossed it in a little more sugar. (I did it this way because I can never get paper thin strips of peel to candy properly without falling apart.)

I set those thinner strips on a rack to dry for a few hours.

Then I bundled them together to take to NYC.

And, voila!

Here are the final tartlettes, garnished with gray sea salt and slivers of orange peel.

And that about completes my report on my adventure to Bon Appetit’s offices in New York. Like I said, it was a pleasure to go, and a pleasure to come home.

After all, we have a lot of treats planned for you this year. I’d better get cooking.

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I have to admit: Until recent years, I was scared to death of these little things.

Are you kidding me: “Prune” in the same sentence with “dessert?” No, thank you. Prune plums are tiny and mean looking. If you don’t know any better, they look like they taste terribly sour.

And, they have a pit.

Call it leftover 8-year-old-fear-of-weird-food rearing its head in my (questionably) grown-up self, but they never seemed to belong in anything that I would even think of ingesting. Much less in dessert. I mean, to sum how I used to feel: Yuck.

I didn’t get over it until well into my late twenties. And I’m still kicking myself that it took me that long.

In recent years, prune plums have become one of my fondest fall darlings. When baked, they’re sweet, sticky, and jammy—and make a perfect filling for a bunch of different desserts.

In this crumble, they’re nestled under a blanket of buttery, crunchy oatmeal topping that’s dotted with sliced almonds.

About prune plums

Prune plums have a brief season, and are around for only a few weeks in the early fall. (Look for them when you start to see pumpkins.)

They’re about the size of an egg and have dark purple or blue skin. Even when ripe, the inside flesh is yellow. When baked, the color from the skins seeps out and turns the cooked fruit a lovely ruby tone.

When buying them, choose plums that are fairly firm—not super soft. Look for smooth skin, and avoid any that have a wrinkle-y or loose skin. They’ll likely be mealy. Ripen prune plums on the counter, then store in the fridge.

I was so excited when they finally showed up at Haymarket, Boston’s biggest public farm market, a few days ago.

If you can’t find prune plums, this crumble is delicious with regular plums, peaches, and even apples. It’s one of those messy, rustic desserts that is great eaten on its own, or with big scoop of ice cream (ginger is my favorite with this).

Italian Prune Plum Crumble

Filling
1 lb. Italian prune plums, pitted and quartered
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 Tbls. flour
2 Tbls. Chambord (or other raspberry/black raspberry liqueur)

Topping
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/3 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup sliced almonds
6 Tbls. butter, cut into small cubes

Makes 1 9-inch round dessert

Grease a 9-inch glass pie pan lightly with oil or butter and set it aside. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

How to deal with the prune plums

Grab your prune plums.

Cut each plum in half.

Remove the pits and stems (and the little hard, knobby thing that the stem is attached to).

Prune plums are easy to pit because they’re a “freestone” fruit—as opposed to their larger, more difficult “clingstone” cousins.

Cut the plums into quarters. Leave the skins on. They melt into the filling as the crumble bakes.

Repeat with the rest of your plums until they’re all pitted and quartered. Put the plum quarters into a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Make the plum tart filling

Toss in the brown sugar and flour.

Add the Chambord (or other raspberry liqueur).

Mix gently until all the ingredients are combined. It won’t seem like it at first, but that little bit of liqueur—plus the juice from the plums—is enough to turn all the dry ingredients into a thick, sugar-y paste.

Transfer the filling to your greased pie pan. Be sure to scrape out any sugar that’s sticking to the bowl.

Your filling should almost fill the pan to the top.

Make the crumb topping for the tart

Put the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, sliced almonds, oatmeal, and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl, if you’re mixing by hand).

Toss in the butter. (By small cubes, I mean cut the butter about the size of a regular die—or one of those little square Laughing Cow cheese bites.)

Mix on medium-high to break up the butter and incorporate it with the rest of the ingredients. (If you’re not using a stand mixer, squeeze the butter and dry ingredients together with your hands repeatedly to soften the butter a little and smoosh them together.)

You’re aiming for a coarse meal texture.

Like this (odd-sized bits of butter are just fine):

Assemble the crumble!

Sprinkle the crumb topping over the plum mixture.

Try to spread it evenly, but don’t make yourself nuts. This is a rustic dessert. It’s OK if bits of plum are poking through. In fact, the juice they release when baking will help form a pretty pattern on the top of the finished dessert.

Bake, serve, and enjoy!

Pop the pan into your pre-heated 375-degree oven. Bake for about 45 minutes.

You want the topping to be brown and the filling to bubble up on the edges.

Yank it out of the oven when it looks about like this:

Cool it on the counter and serve warm or at room temperature. (It’s good cold, too, but you really don’t get the full flavor of the fruit that way.)

Enjoy!

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Did you guys go nuts when you saw this a few months ago on the cover of Saveur? I lost my little mouse mind—which is impressive, considering that I don’t have that much of a sweet tooth.

I knew I had to make one for my dear Angry Chef, who loves sugary things, especially any combination of chocolate and caramel.

This is one of those desserts that’s kind of a pain to make—but is 110% worth the time and effort. The method itself is actually pretty simple: Make a chocolate shortbread crust, fill it with caramel, then top it with chocolate ganache.

The killer is waiting for each layer to cool properly before adding the next.

The end result is like a grown-up candy bar, in decadent tart form. The cookie crust is crisp and buttery. The caramel is creamy with just a little tang from the addition of a dollop of craime fraiche. The chocolate ganache is velvety and rich. I’m going to be bold: This might just be the perfect dessert.

While it may sound nuts, French grey sea salt (a.k.a. sel gris) is one of those things that pairs amazingly well with caramel. A sprinkling of the briny crystals enhance the sweetness and flavor of the caramel and chocolate.

Trust me on this one. You won’t be sorry.

What is creme fraiche?

Creme fraiche is cream that’s introduced to a little well-meaning bacteria, then allowed to age so that it gets gloriously thick, like sour cream.

Crame Fraiche

Find it at a good cheese shop or dairy, or at a Whole Foods.

You can also make your own at home by mixing 2 tablespoons of buttermilk or sour cream into 1 cup of heavy cream in a sterilized jar, then letting it sit out (covered) at room temperature overnight. Once it’s thickened, keep it in the fridge, and use it up within 10 days or so.

Creme fraiche is a great creamy addition to cooked dishes, because it won’t curdle like milk or cream when it boils.

I was feeling lazy (OK, I just didn’t want to wait for the tart), and snagged some from Whole Foods.

Where to find a good tart pan

Use a 9 1/2-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. If you don’t have one, most good kitchen stores will carry them. Williams Sonoma sells them for about $9. Or you can order one from Amazon.com here. In a pinch, you could improvise reasonably well with a springform pan. You’d just be missing that nice, ridged edge on your crust.

Chocolate Caramel Tart

Originally published in Saveur magazine

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
5 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder (not sweetened hot chocolate mix)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
10 Tbls. butter, diced and softened
1/2 cup + 2 Tbls. confectioner’s sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Caramel
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 Tbls. light corn syrup
6 Tbls. water
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
6 Tbls. butter
6 Tbls. heavy cream
1 Tbls. creme fraiche

Ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

French Grey sea salt, for garnish

Makes 1 9 1/2-inch tart. Serves as many as you can bear sharing with.

Part 1: Make the chocolate shortbread crust

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease your tart pan and set it aside.

Put the butter and confectioner’s sugar in the bowl of your mixer (or in a large mixing bowl if you’re mixing with a handheld, electric mixer.)

Cream the butter and sugar together until they’re light and fluffy…

…like this:

Toss in the egg yolks and the vanilla. (Learn how to make your own vanilla extract here.)

Mix to combine.

Toss in the flour, cocoa powder, and kosher salt.

Beat well until combined. The mixture will be kind of dry, and somewhat crumbly—like good, fresh Play-Doh.

Gather it into a rough ball and plunk it down in the middle of your greased tart pan.

With your hands, smoosh the dough down so that it spreads and fills the whole tart pan. Try to spread it out so that it’s a fairly even thickness all around.

Press the dough into the fluted edge of your pan, so your crust has a pretty shape.

Press the edges down to level them so they’re relatively flat. (Don’t make yourself nuts. It’s going to be delicious, regardless of how neat the edges are.)

You want the dough to look about like this (all those fingerprints are just fine):

Prick the dough all over gently, with a fork. These little holes will release steam (from the water in the butter and egg) as the crust bakes, which will help to keep your bottom crust flat. (If it does somehow manage to poof up alarmingly once it’s baked, make a few pinpricks in the bottom, and gently press the surface down, squeezing out the air.)

Pop it into your pre-heated 350-degree oven and bake for about 20 minutes, until the dough is lightly browned on the edges. If your crust cracks a little bit, don’t fret. It’s so totally not a tragedy.

Set the crust aside to cool completely.

Part 2: Make the caramel filling

Once your tart crust has cooled, make the caramel. Put the sugar in a heavy-bottomed, 1-quart saucepan. Add the light corn syrup, water, and salt.

For light corn syrup, I like Karo syrup. You can find it in most U.S. markets.

Whisk the mixture together until well combined. It will take a minute or two to dissolve that sticky corn syrup.

Set the pot on the stove over high heat. Cook, without stirring.

The mixture will come to a tall boil, then subside. Keep the heat on high and resist the urge to stir (you’ll form larger sugar crystals, which will make lumps in your caramel). Boil until you hit 340 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

When the mixture reaches 340 degrees, take the pot off the heat. (Be really careful with this part. Boiling sugar is like napalm.) Your mixture should be a light caramel color, kind of like light maple syrup.

Add the butter, cream, and creme fraiche to the pot.

Whisk the ingredients in with the boiling sugar. The mixture will bubble up dramatically as you stir.

Like, dramatically:

Then it will subside.

Whisk until the mixture is uniform in consistency, like this:

Pour the caramel into your cooled tart shell.

It will just about fill the tart to the top. That’s just fine (it only gets a thin layer of ganache on top).

Let the tart cool to room temperature on the counter, then transfer it to the fridge until the caramel is quite firm. This will take about 4-5 hours. The surface of the tart should feel—firm to the touch—like a marshmallow…firm, but not hard…when you press on it gently with a finger.

Part 3: Make the chocolate ganache

When the caramel is cold and very firm, make the chocolate ganache. Roughly chop up your chocolate. Put it in a heatproof bowl and set it aside while you heat up the cream.

Put the cream in a 1-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring it to a boil.

Pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate.

Let it sit for maybe a minute to start softening up the chocolate.

Then stir it with a spatula or wooden spoon until the chocolate is completely melted.

After a minute or two of stirring, all your chocolate should be melted, and your mixture should look about like this:

Pour the warm ganache on top of the caramel filling.

Spread it around gently with a rubber spatula. (Spread it gently across the surface of the caramel. Try not to press down too hard.)

Tuck the chocolate up to the edges, so that it touches the crust.

Your finished tart should look about like this:

Mmmmm….(Resist the urge to dive in and swim around in your creation.)

Pop the tart into the fridge until the ganache is totally set, about 4-5 hours. (If you don’t wait, it will ooze a lot when you cut it. I learned the hard way…)

Serve and enjoy!

When the ganache is cool and totally set, slice the tart into wedges, and sprinkle with a few grains of French grey sea salt.

Enjoy!!

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