Chocolate caramel yay pie and new things

This pie is a little break from the ordinary for me – in any chocolate caramel dessert I make, the chocolate tops the caramel. Not in terms of taste, but in terms of positioning. Take my favourite caramel slice, for example, or my mini caramel egg brownies.

In the interest of chocolate-caramel equality, I thought that I’d switch things up a bit.

Anything combining chocolate and caramel is a winner for me – they’re both things that make me celebrate internally. As I combined these two dashing layers of deliciousness with the sweet, vanilla-laden pastry, all I was thinking was “yay, pie!”

This pie was also a yay pie because The Boy started a new job recently. I made it for him as dessert after his first at the new job – it’s pretty labour-intensive, so I figured he’d welcome the extra calories!

Thus, the yay pie was created. Pretty much any old pie could be a yay pie, but I’m going to say that this is the original yay pie. I Googled it to make sure I was the first yay pie creator… I’m fairly sure I am!

What would be your ultimate yay pie?

 Vanilla dough:

• 11/2 cup plain flour
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 130g butter, diced
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg yolk
• 2½ tbsp cold water

 Chocolate filling:

• ¾ cup thickened cream
• ½ cup milk
• 2 tbsp white sugar
• 350g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk

 Caramel:

• ½ tsp water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 100g salted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup thickened cream, room temperature

Whisk your flour, and sugar together in a bowl. Dice up your butter (make sure it’s still chilled, but not rock hard) and add it into the bowl. Mix until you achieve a fine crumb. Add in the vanilla paste and egg yolk, then mix well. Switch to your bread hook and t add in the cold water, one tablespoon at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if the dough is not coming together properly. Shape the dough into a disc, wrap in cling wrap and pop into the fridge for 30 minutes.

Pop the milk and cream into a pot over a medium heat until the mixture starts to boil. Throw the chocolate in, turn the heat off and continue to stir until the chocolate melts. Whisk your eggs together and pour a small amount of the chocolate into the to temper the eggs (so you avoid scrambling them with the heat remaining in the mixture.) pour the egg and chocolate mixture into the pan and whisk to combine. Set to one side.

Preheat oven to 160°C and grease a 10 inch tart tin.

Roll your dough out to just over half a cm on a well-floured surface. It helps to lightly dust your rolling pin with flour as well. Gently fold the dough in half and quickly transfer it to your tin – the dough is strong enough to withhold this move, but be quick. Press the dough into your tin, allowing a little extra height on the sides so your tart doesn’t end up too shallow.

Trim the excess ends of your dough, prick with a fork and then put in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the baking weights and return to the oven for two minutes.

Let the tart to cool for ten minutes before pouring the chocolate into it. Pop the tart in the oven again for 25 minutes.

Once the tart has been in the oven for 20 minutes, put the sugar for the caramel in a pan over a medium heat. Stir it constantly so that it doesn’t burn. Add the butter and remove from the heat once all of the sugar has melted. Mix until the butter has also melted. Add in the cream and return to a medium heat. The caramel may harden when you add the cream, but don’t stress out, just keep mixing. Boil gently for three minutes, stirring constantly.

Allow it to cool for at least five minutes before gently pouring it over the top of the tart. If you pour it while it’s too hot it will just run off the edges, so allow it to cool and thicken slightly.

Pop into the fridge for at least two hours before serving.

If you want to turn yours into an authentic yay pie, melt 15 grams of dark chocolate and pipe it onto your set tart and return to the fridge for 10 minutes to set your “yay.”