Caramel cream and Chocolate Tart

I had to bake something for the office to celebrate my birthday. I made a cheese cream, but there are some coworkers, who prefer sweet stuff in the morning.

At my supermarket check out was a food magazine issue LUST AUF GENUSS - all about caramel. The way the cover was made spoke to me. Later, when I checked the content at home I was a bit disappointed. A friend of mine bought the same issue and she felt the same. The cover was clever marketing.

But at least one recipe caught my eye. But they used Chai Tea in the mix. This is a tea I don´t like and I switched to Earl Grey tea.
I prepared the shortcrust pastry yesterday and stored it in the fridge. That made my live today a lot easier. The recipe is a bit time consuming. Having the pastry out of the way helps.

RECIPE for 24 cm fluted pie tin:
200 g flour
pinch of salt
100 g soft butter and some for the tin
320 g sugar
3 eggs size M
3 egg yolks
60 g double cream
500 ml whole milk
3 earl grey tea bags
1/2 vanilla pod
60 g 60% chocolate
50 g cashew nuts
1 tbsp chopped pistachios
1 mandarin orange

Preheat the oven to  200 C.
Knead flour, salt, butter  and 80 g sugar and 1 egg to a dough. Roll it out and place it in the buttered pie tin. Prick with a fork. Put that for at least 30 min into the fridge.
Place baking paper on top and put ceramic beans on top.
Bake for 1t min.
Get it out.

Reduce the heat of the oven to 120 C.
Use 2 small pots and put 100 g sugar in each one of them, make a light brown caramel. Do not stir, just swirl the sugar in the pot.
When the first one is ready, get it off the heat and pour in the double cream. Cook until it is all melted. Take 1 tbsp out for later.

In the second pot pour in the milk, the vanilla seeds and hang the tea bags in.
Cook for 5 min until the whole caramel has been loosened in the milk. Cool down.
Take out the tea bags.
In a larger bowl, break 2 eggs and 3 egg yolks. Stir and add the milk- tea mix.

Place the pie crust in the oven and pour the tea mix through a fine sieve in. Do not spill.
Carefully push it in the oven and bake for 70 min.
Cool down and get the pie tin off.

Over a bain marie melt the dark chocolate and mix it with the other caramel. Bring it back over low heat to make it smoother.
Pour over the caramel layer.
Use the rest of he caramel and make some lines with a small piping bag.

The rest of the sugar goes into a pan. When the caramel starts, drop in the cashew nuts and coat them.
Chop them when they have cooled down.

Get the skin off the mandarin and place pieces on top. Sprinkle some pistachios and cashews.

Keep it in the fridge!