chocolate caramel torte (A dessert dedicated to the addicting game of Bloons Super Monkey)

Today was a completely hectic day. I was lucky enough to have Cuddles pick me up for school, so the morning was obviously the sunniest part of my day. James was also being especially bright and cheerful today, which made me want to show him exactly how much I love him when he's nice. But we can skip those details and move to the real action of the day.
I was eating brownies that cuddles baked me (judging by the lack of height I'm guessing he decided to omit the baking powder for some reason), and offered my friend Sara a couple. We went our separate ways after lunch was over, and I was quickly absorbed in my physics work for a period. Suddenly, a security guard appeared in my class looking for me. He escorted me to the nurses office where I found Sara sitting and being comforted by a blond-haired snob that shot me a quick dirty glance. Apparently Sara zoned out during class, and then panicked after several people convinced her she was high. So the last two periods of school were spent trying to convince three nurses, a drug counselor and my dean that my boyfriend was not trying to illicitly drug me. The worst part of this little fiasco? My brownies got confiscated and subjected to highly humiliating drug tests. Just because they looked a little suspicious. So, the lesson of the day is: don't judge a book by it's cover because it could be the most delicious book you've ever tasted. Or something like that...
Now, Having said that, this torte is something you most definitely should judge by it's cover. It's perfect shiny gloss of chocolate ganache binding conceals an even more heavenly middle of caramel and macadamia nut filling. This sits upon a sweet, doughy crust that has the faint resemblance of a sugar cookie. So, if you were to follow one piece of advice from this post only, it would be this. Drop what you are doing and go make this torte. Because there is nothing that could possibly be more important than chocolate and caramel.



Chocolate Caramel Torte
Adapted from: Fine cooking

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbs. Granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 Tbs. Unsalted butter
2 Tbs. Heavy cream
1 Large egg yolk

Caramel Filling:
1/3- 1/2 cup chopped, roasted macadamia nuts
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup and 1 tablespoon Water
1/3 cup Whipping cream or milk
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Teaspoon vanilla Extract
pinch of salt

Chocolate Ganache:
3/4 Cup of Whole milk
7 ounces of 70% Fine Quality Bittersweet Chocolate
3 Tablespoons Salted Butter

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F

Make the Crust:
1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until the butter is evenly incorporated with the dry ingredients. Mix the cream and yolk together in a small bowl. Pour the cream mixture into the flower mixture, beating on low speed until it is evenly mixed in. Do not over mix.
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead it together with your hands. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it's around 11 inches in diameter. Place it in a 9 inch heavily greased pie pan and use the extra dough to shape the crust around the pan. Put in the refrigerator and chill for an hour.

Make the tart:
1. Line the bottom of the crust with coffee filters and pile coffee beans on top of the filters. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Take the crust out of the oven and remove the coffee filters and beans. Return to oven for another 15 minutes or until it is golden brown. If air bubble appears, press it down with a spoon (i did this multiple times haha, the crust was still fantastic. Also, I opted for a slightly less cooked crust, giving it more of a sugar cookie consistency. Yum!). Cool completely out of the oven.
2. While the crust is in the oven, place your macadamia nuts and spread them out on a cookie sheet. Place sheet in over for 10-12 minutes, or until delicious nutty aroma emits from the oven. Take them out and chop them up!

Caramel:
1. Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat, until sugar dissolves completely. Medium heat works fine too. Let's face it, who has the patience to wait for caramel? Increase heat and boil until liquid turns a heavy amber color, or, the color of caramel!
2. Swirl the pan around occasionally and stir so the heat is evenly distributed and the mixture doesn't begin to crystalize.
3. Remove from heat and add the cream, butter, vanilla and salt, stirring until everything is melted nice and consistently throughout your caramel.
4. Return to heat and stir under low heat until color deepens further, about 5 minutes. Refrigerate until mixture cools off, making sure it doesn't harden.
5. pour warm (not hot!) caramel into baked torte crust. Sprinkle nuts over caramel, making sure they are evenly distributed around the crust, and letting them sink into the caramel. Refrigerate until caramel sets and firms up.

Ganache:
1. Place Chocolate in a bowl, broken into smaller pieces.
2. Bring whole milk or cream to a boil in a small saucepan. (Yes, I used skim milk, yes I heated it up in a microwave. Guess what? I'm not a chocolate ganache snob, as long as it's dark, rich and strong, i'll take it ;)
3. Pour boiling milk/cream over dark chocolate and stir until it is completely melted. Stir in butter. If the mixture is too cold to melt the butter, simply heat it in the microwave for a couple seconds. I prefer salted butter, however you could always just add a pinch of salt at the end.
4. Spread chocolate ganache evenly over the firm caramel and return to refrigerator for 3-4 hours or overnight.
5. Serve to amazed friends with a dollop of whipped cream and expect to be conspicuously worshipped.

:D