If you love salted caramel and chocolate, this Salted Caramel Tart is your dream come true! The creamy caramel filling is made with condensed milk, a secret trick for making perfect soft-set caramel without using a candy thermometer. With a biscuit crust and luxurious chocolate ganache topping, it’s hard to believe you only need 6 ingredients to make this!
Salted caramel tart
“OMG, that caramel tart!”, my friend exclaimed. “You’ve probably given my whole family diabetes, but OMG!!!!”
I grinned, gleefully. “I know, it’s INSANE, isn’t it?”
This is probably the most indulgent dessert I know how to make. It’s sinfully decadent. The caramel filling is truly incredible – it’s smooth, creamy, thick and so soft.
It’s made using a caramel base of butter plus sugar (for the caramel flavour) which is then combined with condensed milk. Once baked, it sets, almost like a soft custard. It’s different to the traditional method of making caramel fillings which require the caramel to come to a specific temperature at which point it will set to be a soft creamy caramel, rather than runny or hard. i.e. Candy thermometer required.
I have it in my head that this is the Australian way of making a creamy caramel, as it is how the caramel is made for the Aussie favourite Caramel Slice. I’d love to know if anyone knows otherwise. I feel like it’s an undiscovered secret because I never seem to see caramel tarts/pies/bars/slices etc made using condensed milk.
The biscuit crust
This tart is made with a simple biscuit crust, like you see with cheesecakes. That caramel was made for using as a glue to suction up all the loose crumbs when you inhale your slice!
This is how I press the crumbs into the tart tin – using something flat and round with straight walls. I’m using a measuring cup here. Use it to press the crumbs into the wall and a knife or your finger to level out the top of the crust, and to level out the base of the tart.
As for the topping – what else could it be other than a chocolate ganache? 🙂 This ganache has a slightly higher chocolate to cream ratio than traditional ganache recipes (which are usually 1:1) so the chocolate is a little firmer than used as a frosting. It makes it soft but cuttable without smearing so you get nice neat tart slices.
Many readers have jokingly noted how my very recognisable hands have been absent in videos recently. Shooting videos by yourself is seriously hard work when you have a simple home set up like I do. I’ve been thinking about getting a studio, setting things up “properly”. A permanent video shoot area with studio lights, a kitchen, getting a permanent support team and making my life a little – ALOT – easier.
But for me, one of the things I love about my website is how personal it is. Everything that you see is made in my pokey kitchen, the recipes are my own, created by me, tested by me, taste tested by family and friends. The larger a team gets, the less personal this website will become. Does anyone here seriously think that Martha Stewart creates every recipe that ends up on her website, her magazines, cookbooks and TV shows?
I enjoy making my own videos, shooting them, editing them. In a bid to make my life slightly easier, I get my mother or a helper to come in once a week to help with food prep, double/triple/quadruple test recipes, and most importantly in my world, help with the washing up.
And because everybody has nicer hands than me, I can never resist calling on my help to be my video hand model. 😂 Plus the incredible convenience of not having to wipe my hands and dash around to check the camera with every single micro step in every video! For a recipe like this, if I shot it myself, I would have to do that about 40 times – at least.
I feel like this post is a little all over the place and a bit stilted.
I’ll be honest. I’m a bit tarted out. I’m really trying to drum up the enthusiasm for what is possibly the most raved about dessert ever by my taste testers – and that includes the homeless man at the dog park.
But I’ve made this seven times in a week and half!! Testing + a couple of video fails.
As I said, I’m tarted out!!
My friends are not. I definitely did not run out of willing taste testers to even take the ones I wasn’t 100% happy with. 🙂
To be clear, Dozer was not one of those taste testers. No chocolate for dogs!! – Nagi xx
Watch how to make it
Salted Caramel Tart recipe video. So you can see how soft that caramel is and don’t miss the Dozer cameo at the end!!
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Salted Caramel Tart
Ingredients
Base:
- 225g / 8 oz plain sweet biscuits, about 2 cups (packed) crushed (Arnott’s Marie Crackers, Graham Crackers, Note 1 for Digestives)
- 150g / 10 tbsp unsalted butter , melted (Note 1 for Digestives)
Caramel:
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar (tightly packed cup)
- 2 cans sweetened condensed milk (395g / 14oz each can)
- 1 3/4 tsp salt (2 ½ – 3 tsp salt flakes)
Chocolate Ganache Topping:
- 1/3 cup thickened cream (heavy cream), or any cream 30%+ fat
- 150g / 5 oz dark chocolate melts / chips
- Sea salt flakes , for topping (recommended)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180*C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Grease and line the base only of a 23cm / 9" tart tin with a loose base. (Or a springform pan of a similar size)
- Blitz biscuits – Roughly break up biscuits and place in a food processor, then whizz until fine crumbs form. Or do this step with a ziplock bag and rolling pin.
- Press – Pour crumbs into a bowl, add melted butter, mix until it looks like wet sand and no dry crumbs remain. Pour into tin, then press firmly into base and sides – use something flat like a cup to assist (refer to video).
- Bake & cool – Transfer to tray (safe handling), place in oven and bake for 10 minutes, then remove and cool slightly (5 minutes in fridge).
Caramel:
- Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and whisk to combine – butter may not incorporate fully.
- Whisk – Once it starts bubbling and the sugar is completely melted, pour in the condensed milk, whisking as you go. Whisk constantly until you see steam coming off the caramel (~ 4 minutes), then remove from heat.
- Pour into base – Add salt (adjust to taste), then pour the caramel into the tart base.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges of the caramel surface is golden and the surface has a “skin” on it, but the caramel is still soft and the centre jiggles slightly (see video for demo.)
- Cool on counter while you make the chocolate.
Chocolate Ganache:
- Melt chocolate – Place cream and chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Microwave in 2 x 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until smooth.
- Cool then pour – Set aside for 10 minutes to thicken slightly, then pour over the base. Smooth top or make swirls like I did (just wait until the chocolate thickens slightly). Sprinkle with sea salt flakes.
- Refrigerate for 1 ½ hours to allow chocolate to set. Then remove and bring to room temperature before slicing to serve. Handle carefully when sliding the tart off the base – or just leave it on to be safe and just remove the sides.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
For Caramel Monsters
Caramel Slice (aka Millionaire’s Shortbread!) – the great Aussie favourite!
Peanut Butter Caramel Tart – dangerously easy
Sweetened Condensed Milk Caramel – just place a can of condensed milk in the slow cooker!
More slices and bars
Strawberry Bars – made with tons of fresh strawberries!
Easiest Ever Raspberries Jam Bars
Life of Dozer
Checking himself out while I was making the recipe video!! 😂
Hi Nagi,
I love your recipe! The caramel is absolutely delicious and as you say, the standard tart slice is way too much 😀 😀
I’m trying to make small tartlets using your recipe and since I will be using pre-baked pate sucree tart shells for the base instead of crumbled biscuits, I wanted to ask if it is absolutely necessary to bake this caramel? After all, considering ingredients, it seems it’s really not necessary to bake.
The only reason I could think of and that worries me is the end product consistency. If I don’t bake the caramel, will it have a thick runny consistency? Is the reason for baking the caramel to make it thicker and set?
So, to summarize my questions:
1. is it necessary to bake the caramel?
2. if I don’t bake the caramel will it impact end product consistency – will the caramel run out
3. I’m not sure if you have experience with this, but if I serve the small tartlets outside at a summer BBQ where they will be standing on warm temperatures for half of a day, do you think this will make them all melted and not so yummy?
Thanks for your help in advance and sorry for such a long comment 🙂
To answer your question, if you do not cook in the oven they will run out of the tart and not thicken, the preferred way to make the tarts is with the caramel which is boiled in the can as it is thick and rich and can be spooned out and into the tart shells. In Australia that standard way for making caramel was to boil the cans of condensed milk for about 2 hours or for darker 3 hours (we use to fill a large pot with a few cans at a time). CAUTION: Do not open cans while the cans are hot as it will spurt out as soon as you puncture the tin, perfectly safe to open after they cool down. The cans will NOT burst open, they are simmered at a fair rate and over all these years I have never heard of one bursting. My grandmother and mother used to always have caramel on hand by keeping these in the pantry. You can keep them for months and months, even years like this. My cousin used to work in a bakery and they would always make their caramel tarts by this boiling method, it is the most delicious caramel you could imagine.
Hi Zala! Yes baking is what ensures the caramel sets, if using small tart shells they will be fine baked for a bit until the top sets a bit like you see in the video. If you don’t bake, the caramel won’t run out, it will just be like a super thick sauce, but not runny. Yes if you leave this standing out on a hot day they will soften, can you keep them in a cooler until ready to serve?
Hi Nagi,
Thanks for your response. Ok, that makes sense. I will definitely bake them – thank you!
Well, there will be a fridge onsite where I’m planning on taking the tarts, but I’m worried there will not be enough space for all my tiny tarts. But either way, as long as the caramel doesn’t run out, it should be fine.
I will test them this weekend as we have quite hot temperatures coming up and I’ll see what happens.
I happen to have 1 more question 🙂
Do you think it would be possible to make the caramel cream ahead, keep it in the fridge with plastic wrap touching the top (to prevent a film forming on top) and use it in 2-3 days time?
If you use the boiled ans of condensed milk you can take your tart cases with you and fill just before serving, no baking require. Boil the unopened cans for 2 to 3 hours (longer makes darker) and cool before opening. DO NOT TRY TO OPEN WHILE HOT. They do not burst open in the cooking process, used this method for many years.
Hi,
Just a quick follow up for anyone who might be wondering 🙂
I made a batch of small tarts and divided them into 3 parts in order to test 3 different conditions:
Part 1 I left outside overnight and 1 full day in warm weather (in a hot kitchen, but not on direct sun)
Part 2 I put in the fridge overnight, and put it outside for 1 full day (equal as above)
Part 3 I put in freezer overnight, and took out in the morning, left it outside the whole day on warmth (equal as above)
Lessons learned:
1. Freezing works perfectly fine. Actually, freezing works really well and I didn’t even wrap it in cling film.
2. Caramel keeps its shape and form in all 3 conditions and it is necessary to bake it as Nagi said (and no, you cannot make it ahead and store it because it becomes hard and impossible to handle. It might work if you use microwave oven to reheat, but I don’t have one, so that’s that).
3. Tart cases-wise, surprisingly, there was practically no difference between Part 1 and Part 3. As for Part 2, I feel that the moisture in the fridge may have affected the rim of the tartlet shell, but this could be just a coincidence. Still, I think I will go with freezing in the future.
P.S.: The type of sugar you use matters. I used a regular white crystal sugar (in my part of the world it’s hard to come across soft brown variety unless you make it yourself) and it took quite some time for it to melt which caused the caramel to be much darker.
It was still good, but I think that using soft brown sugar (that is regular caster sugar wth added molasses – in case you want to make it at home) would yield slightly softer more fudgy type of caramel.
Once again, Nagi, amazing recipe! Thank you so much for sharing! I am definitely sticking around to try some other genius creations from under your hands 🙂
Hi Nagi –
I’ve made this tart several times now, and it is a favorite! I discovered tonight at 10 pm that I didn’t have any brown sugar, so I looked on-line, and it said coconut sugar could be substituted instead. Since I had some, I tried it, and it is a delicious alternative!
Thanks for all the yummy recipes!
So pleased to hear that Beth! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 N x
This recipe looks amazing but is there any substitute for the condensed milk – as one of my guests has a milk allergy?
Sorry Melanie, I’m not sure! It’s a pretty important ingredient in this recipe!
Hi Nagi! Thanks for another great recipe! Just wanted to let you know a slight variation to the recipe that you might like to try. It’s the banoffee tart version! I made it for a dinner party. Followed recipe to step 5 with caramel baked, put in fridge and left over night as I wanted to make it the day before. The next day, just before leaving for my dinner party, I sliced up 2 ripe bananas and placed on top of caramel, drizzled some melted ganache over bananas (Just combined some dark choc with a bit of cream and melted in microwave), then topped it with whipped cream and grated choc. Ate it at room temperature. Such a yummy combination! Banoffee tart is a fave. You might like to try! By the way, I used digestives with 75g melted butter and was perfect. Also the caramel is super easy to make and just divine with a great consistency. Plus the added bonus of scraping the tins of condensed milk at the end!! The perks of baking!! Haha!
LOVE your variation!!!
Hi
It looks yumilicious😋
Just wondering if i could make these into small tartlets..will the procedure be the same.
Thank you
yes I would like the same answer please?
It will definitely work if you have small tart tins with loose bases! I am not sure about using a muffin tin though because I’m not sure if the crust would break when turning them out 🙂
Hi !
I made this yesterday in Belgium and it’s delicious !
I used ‘petit beurre’ to make the base (because I don’t find the biscuits you talk about in a regular supermarket here..). Next time i will try with less butter though. (100-115 or so)(or with a different brand and the same amount of butter)
As I put too much salt in it, I made the topping with milk chocolate, to make it a little bit sweeter. It’s perfect !
Perhaps you could add the weight of cream in “g” for the thickened cream also? I used 80g (don’t know if it’s correct…)
This weekend I’ll try the caramel brownies.. and your blog is already in my favourites <3
Thank you !
That’s so great to hear Stephanie! Thanks for letting me know – N x ❤️
i made this last night and we were very pleased with the result. The only issue I had was I never got the caramel to “steam”, even after cooking it for six minutes. So I went ahead and put it in the crust, anyway, and continued on with the recipe. I used two 8 oz. packages of Scottish short bread for the crust. Very good dessert; easy yet elegant.
Great to hear Farrel! Thank you very much for leaving a review – N x ❤️
Hello i liked your recipe very much. Can you tell me if the heavy/ thickened cream is with sugar or without and also is it milk heavy cream or vegetable heavy cream?
Thankyou
Waiting for your reply
Hi Elena! It’s cow dairy and it is sugarless 🙂
Lovely tart! made it and shared it! the taste is insane! My caramel was a bit darker maybe due to the brown sugar available here in Sweden. I was wondering what kind of brown sugar did you use to get the light color of the caramel?
That’s so wonderful to hear!! Thanks for letting me know – N x ❤️
😘what kind brown sugar did you use? Xoxo
Hi!! I use light brown or standard brown (here in Australia, we only have light and standard (no dark), can’t tell the difference in this recipe) 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi, just letting you know we do have dark brown sugar here in Australia- CSR make one and is available at Coles/Woolies. I have just made this tart (still cooling) and mine is also a darker colour. Had to cook it for 20 minutes but otherwise looks the same at this stage.
Thanks Annellen! I use standard brown in this one 🙂 N x
I have made your shortbread and it is such a hit with friends and family i cant make it quick enough 😃 i am now going to have a go at this tart as salted caramel is my favorite , keep the recipies coming i love your simple way of cooking x
I hope you love this!!
I made this slice of heaven cake for a dinner party and it was a huge hit! The recipe was ‘spot on’ and happily, I had no surprises….my new go-to perfect tart, thank you!
That’s terrific to hear Fiona! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review – N x
Hellooo Nagi, well I made a batch of these as cup cake sized for the nurses…OH MY GOD..they totally loved them, got more kisses and hugs ever. Great pick me up after hurricane Irma. Just a tad jealous, my home made eclairs used to be the favorites. thanks again and follow up to initial question, these were much better than starbu##’s
HIGH FIVE JOE!!!
Just to confirm, the nutrition facts are for 1/14 slices or for the whole cake?
Yep that’s right! 🙂
I also had the same problem. I used 5 oz of butter which equals 10 tablespoons. Way too much butter! I even added more crackers, but still too buttery. Should it be 5 tbls and not 5 oz?
Then my caramel was too soft after the 15 minutes. I ended up cooking for another 15 minutes to get the skin to form on the top. Every oven is different, so I just watched for the skin to form. In the end it was delicious! I’ll try making it again with 5 tablespoons of butter for the crust and see what happens… Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Holly, I’m so glad this worked out for you! Yes, ovens can be so different, it sounds like yours runs a little cool so I’m really pleased you watched for the skin. The crust concerns me though – can I ask what crackers you used and how you measured it? 🙂 I just want to be able to add notes for other people and I know the type of crackers used can affect the crust. 🙂 N x
I have learned from my daughter who lived in Sydney for years that an Australian tablespoon is different from America’s. If you are making this in US be aware.
Hi Lynda! That is correct, and in recipes where there is rising and also for cookies it can affect the recipe which is why when it does matter, I provide measurements in both 🙂 This recipe is not affected, as part of my recipe testing, I test my baked goods using US and Australia tsp, tbsp and cups 🙂 N x
It’s an African secret 🙂 the condensed milk to make caramels. We call them milk candy over in west Africa & very simple to make! 💙
Aussies and Africans! We know the secret to great caramel!!
Hi – when I bake the caramel in the base, it starts bubbling and rising and goes over the edge of the tart. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Maheen, did you use the right tart tin size??
Hi made the tart a few days back. I felt the butter was too much, when pressing the crumbs it was extremely wet. And after baking the condensed milk mixture and cooling etc, the center was very runny on serving. Not sure what I id wrong. The taste was fantastic tho!
Hi P! What type of crumbs did you use? Definitely should not feel extremely wet, as you can see in the video the crumbs are dry 🙂 You didn’t mix up the butter for the filling, did you? 🙁 N x
OMG – beyond awesome and super easy too. I’ve made it for the school fete and I can’t bear to let it go. I’ve only been able to taste it as separate components, but I can tell by the taste and the way it looks that it’s beyond good.
Time to make a second one!
Thank you for such a beautiful, easy, impressive dessert.
I’m so happy to hear that Pauline! Thanks for sharing your feedback – N x ❤️
I made this yesterday and it’s so delicious and super easy! Thank you! If I wanted to make a 30cm version, what would you recommend? To double the ingredients? Or do one and a half times ?
So glad you loved this Sai! I would increase the ingredients by 50%, hover your cursor over the Servings and slide it from 12 to 18, then the ingredients will change for you 🙂 You may have a bit too much caramel, but just store the excess in the fridge and use it for ice cream etc! 🙂 N x
Thank you for that tip!
When I got it out the oven it was sooooo wobbly with a film on top. Is this right?
YES! PERFECT!!!