Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
"I enjoy cooking, but I love my blog!"
That was almost exactly what Sara from Belly Rumbles said, and we reflected on the extraordinary places our food blogs had taken us. I agreed as I took my first bite from one of the Caramel Tarts I had just finished making with Margaret Fulton and Suzanne Gibbs.
Key Takeaways
- Julie recalls an unforgettable dessert masterclass with Margaret Fulton and Suzanne Gibbs, where Margaret helped her perfect caramel tarts with walnut praline.
- Julie reflects on the warmth of Suzanne's home and the excitement of the mystery box challenge.
- During the masterclass, Suzanne demonstrated her famous chocolate roulade, while Julie nervously prepared caramel tarts under Margaret's guidance.
- The caramel tart recipe uses basic pantry ingredients and is budget-friendly, yet looks impressive when served.
- Key tips include resting pastry properly, stirring caramel to prevent burning, and storing praline correctly to maintain its texture.
Table of contents
- A Home Filled with Food History & Family
- The Mystery Box Challenge
- Suzanne's Chocolate and Berry Roulade Masterclass
- Cooking Caramel Tarts with Margaret Fulton
- A Dessert Bounty
- Margaret's Cheeky Sweet Tooth
- A Forever Memory
- Related Recipes
- Why I love this Tart Recipe
- Caramel Tart Watchpoints
- FAQ Caramel Tarts with Walnut Praline
On this particular day, four food bloggers were being welcomed into the Balmain home of food writer Suzanne Gibbs for a dessert masterclass. We also had the privilege of cooking with one of Australia's greatest culinary legends, Margaret Fulton.
I knew exactly how special it was. As a young child, I had grown up cooking from my nan's hardcover copy of The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. I worked my way through almost every sweet recipe and quite a few of the savoury ones. Now I was about to prepare a dessert for the woman who, in many ways, had helped teach me to cook.
No pressure, then. Are you kidding? I was so nervous!
A Home Filled with Food History & Family
While we waited for everyone to arrive, I wandered through the sitting and dining rooms in awe. Among the family photographs was this beautiful black-and-white image of a very young Suzanne cooking alongside her mother. With the Sunwhite Rice packet carefully positioned on the bench, it appeared to have been taken during a television or promotional cooking segment decades earlier. It felt as though I had stepped into a little piece of Australian food history.
The dining table was already laid with pretty china, and beautiful platters waited for the desserts we would enjoy later. The whole experience felt almost surreal, but best of all, it was intimate and personal. It was a much-loved family home, filled with warmth, food and memories.
The Mystery Box Challenge
We had been warned that there would be a mystery box challenge. I couldn't even practise a recipe beforehand to ensure I served something suitably amazing!
When the "mystery box" ingredients were revealed, we had access to pantry staples, Philadelphia products and a selection of fruit, cinnamon, walnuts, white chocolate, dark chocolate and vanilla.
Mercifully, we were also given some thinking time while Suzanne presented her masterclass.
Suzanne's Chocolate and Berry Roulade Masterclass
The first order of the day was a masterclass with Suzanne Gibbs. She showed us how to make her famous chocolate roulade filled with cream and mixed berries.
Suzanne first made this beautiful dessert while working as the cake and dessert chef at the Cordon Bleu Restaurant in London. She explained that it had since become a family favourite, often shared at birthdays and other special meals. It was definitely one of those impressive desserts that would earn the cook plenty of praise from their guests.
At that time, I'd had mixed success with roulades, so I was looking forward to standing back and watching Suzanne demonstrate the finer points of making the perfect roll.
I won't reproduce Suzanne's chocolate roulade recipe here, but you can find her original Chocolate, Cream and Fresh Berry Roulade recipe, complete with her reassuring advice not to worry if the roulade cracks a little while being rolled.
Cooking Caramel Tarts with Margaret Fulton
Then it was our turn to cook!
I had decided to make Caramel Tarts with Walnut Praline. Of course I was also making the sweet shortcrust pastry by hand. So although it was a simple recipe, there were three components.
I can't tell you how stressful it was to be in a room full of other food bloggers and cooking for actual food divas. Margaret and Suzanne moved around the kitchen, offering advice and taking a genuine interest in each of our desserts. When Margaret reached me, I was hovering nervously over my sugar syrup.
The sugar syrup had changed colour, and I was ready to pull it from the heat. The thought of serving burnt, bitter caramel to Margaret Fulton was horrifying. It would ruin the caramel tarts completely!
Margaret quickly suggested that the caramel could go a little further.
I nervously did what she suggested, and we watched it intently together. She knew precisely how far to push it. When Margaret finally gave me the nod, I removed it from the heat-and the caramel was glorious. It was deeply coloured, rich and not remotely burnt. I quickly poured it over the waiting walnuts laid out on baking paper.
She had absolutely nailed it.
Margaret then toddled off to check on everyone else's desserts, leaving me with a far better praline and tarts, plus a lesson I have never forgotten.
A Dessert Bounty
It wasn't too long before all the desserts were ready to be plated. We had all prepared completely different dishes. My caramel tarts sat proudly alongside my new friends' dishes.
Sarah from A Beach Cottage was the cook behind the pretty chocolate butterfly cakes on the white platter.
Belly Rumbles was responsible for the White Chocolate Mousse with Walnut Praline Layers.
Sandra from The $120 Food Challenge made the Orange Shortcakes with orange crème pâtissière.
Margaret's Cheeky Sweet Tooth
Margaret had a wonderfully cheeky streak, and an undeniable sweet tooth. Each time Suzanne turned away to answer a question, Margaret would quietly select another dessert. Suzanne would eventually notice what she was eating and say, "That's probably enough sweets now, Mum."
Margaret would agree.
Five minutes later, another caramel tart or shortcake would mysteriously disappear.
A Forever Memory
I may have gone home with an autographed Philadelphia cookbook and wondered whether I was too old to be a groupie, but I also went home with something much better, the memory of cooking caramel beside Margaret Fulton and learning that sometimes you have to be brave enough to take your caramel just a little bit further.
Related Recipes
Why I love this Tart Recipe
Pantry ingredients
The recipe contains no fussy ingredients. Most of these items will already be in your pantry. It uses just a handful of ingredients across all three components, and most are probably in your pantry already.
Tart Shells
- flour
- butter
- sugar
- water
Caramel Filling
- butter
- dark brown or brown sugar
- cream (we used an older product called Philly cream)
Praline
- sugar
- corn syrup
- water
- nuts
The Caramel Tart Recipe is cheap!
The ingredients are all pantry staples and very basic items. So it is a really cheap layered dessert. You might not even have to go to the shops! Yet it still looks like you have been super clever!
Caramel Tart Watchpoints
- Divide the pastry into two discs, each about 3 cm thick. Wrap both, refrigerate one for at least 30 minutes and freeze the other for your next tart.
- Don't walk away from the caramel. It must be stirred continuously to prevent it from sticking and burning on the bottom.
- Don't allow any rogue sugar crystals to fall into the praline sugar syrup while you're waiting for it to caramelise. This will "seed" the toffee and it will lose its transparency.
FAQ Caramel Tarts with Walnut Praline
Most standard frozen shortcrust pastry is not sweet. Use frozen sweet shortcrust pastry if available, make your own sweet pastry, or buy premade tart shells.
Yes. Make the tart shells, praline and caramel ahead of time, store each component separately, and assemble the tarts on the day.
If you make the praline ahead of time, you need to store it in an airtight container until you are ready to serve the caramel tarts.
Not really. You can make the tart, praline and caramel ahead of time, but don't assemble the caramel and pastry until the day you plan to serve them. Then add the praline just as you are serving.
The tart shells are stored in an airtight container on the bench or in a cupboard. The praline should be stored in a separate airtight container. Store the caramel in a microwave-safe container in the fridge.
Tart shells can shrink if the pastry has not rested and chilled for long enough, or if it was stretched while being fitted into the tin.
Let's Connect!
I share loads of great recipes on the website, but those who find out first are my special newsletter friends. You can even choose your favourite topics!
I also have a lively social community. Take a look at the Facebook Group page. It is a fabulous place to ask questions, join the chatter, and share images of recipes you have made! It helps inspire others to cook new and interesting dishes.
If you want more Magimix, Optimum or Thermomix recipe ideas or information, please follow the ThermoKitchen FB Page. I post everything I know here first!
GET INSPIRED;
FACEBOOK
TWITTER INSTAGRAM PINTEREST YOUTUBE
Cooking Caramel Tarts with Walnut Praline
Ingredients
- 1 qty sweet pastry dough make the full quantity; use half and freeze the remaining half
Caramel Tart Filling
- ½ cup salted butter melted is fine
- 1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar
- 1 cup pouring cream or Philadelphia Light Cooking Cream
- 1 pinch salt
Praline
- 100 g walnuts choose any nut you prefer
- 110 g white sugar
- 35 ml water mls or grams
- 40 ml corn syrup mls or grams
Instructions
Sweet Pastry
- Make one full quantity of sweet pastry using the recipe below.1 qty sweet pastry dough
- Divide the pastry into two discs, each about 3 cm thick. Wrap both discs; refrigerate one for at least 30 minutes and freeze the other for your next tart.
Caramel Filling
- Add all the caramel filling ingredients to a medium size saucepan.½ cup salted butter, 1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar, 1 cup pouring cream, 1 pinch salt
- Heat the ingredients and allow them to bubble and thicken. Stir continuously.
- After about five minutes remove the caramel from the heat and set it aside.
Sweet Pastry
- Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional or 160°C fan-forced.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge.
- Lay the plastic wrap under the pastry.
- Roll the chilled pastry until it is about 3 mm thick.
- Use a round cookie cutter or egg ring slightly larger than the holes in your tart tin to cut 12 pastry circles.
- Use the plastic wrap to help you lift the pastry circles and place them in the lightly greased tin.
- Prick the pastry with a fork 2 or 3 times.
- Add some baking paper to the pastry middle with a few pie weights on top.
- Bake the pie shells until the edges are starting to turn golden.
- Remove the baking paper and pie weights. Bake for 5 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the base is cooked.
- Remove the tray from the oven and set aside.
Praline
- Line a tray with baking paper, spread the walnuts over the paper and set aside.100 g walnuts
- Add all the ingredients except the nuts to a clean saucepan.110 g white sugar, 35 ml water, 40 ml corn syrup
- Stir slowly over the heat until the ingredients are combined, and the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the syrup to a gentle boil.
- Stop stirring. Swirl the saucepan gently if needed and cook until the caramel reaches a rich golden colour.
- Pour the toffee over the nuts and allow it to cool.
Caramel Tart Filling
- Pour the still warm caramel into the tart shells and place in a container in the fridge for at least 3 hours to cool and set.
- Once the praline has cooled, break it into pieces and put it in an airtight container until you are ready to serve it on the tarts.
Notes
- Divide the pastry into two discs, each about 3 cm thick. Wrap both, refrigerate one for at least 30 minutes and freeze the other for your next tart.
- Don't walk away from the caramel filling. Stir it continuously to prevent it from sticking and burning on the bottom.
- Once the praline sugar has dissolved, stop stirring. Avoid introducing rogue sugar crystals, which can seed the toffee and make it lose its transparency.
Log in: Then add your own recipe notes below!
Nutrition
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry Thermomix
Equipment
Ingredients
- 80 g caster sugar superfine
- 550 g all purpose flour plain
- 270 g cold salted butter cut in cubes
- 160 g cold water
Instructions
- Place sugar in the TM Bowl. Mill 10 sec/Speed 9.80 g caster sugar
- Scrape down the bowl. Add the flour and cubed butter to the bowl. Combine 15 sec/Speed 4550 g all purpose flour, 270 g cold salted butter
- Scrape down the bowl.
- Add water. Set to Dough 1 minute.160 g cold water
- Scrape down the bowl.
- Use the spatula to see if the pastry will push together. If not add another 10sec/dough mode
- Place a piece of plastic wrap on the bench.
- Tip the pastry on the plastic and use the plastic to fold over the pastry and bring it in to form a cohesive square of pastry in the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 160 fan-forced
- When you're ready to use the pastry. Unwrap the pastry and allow it to stay on the plastic. Place another sheet of plastic over the pastry. Roll the pastry between the two sheets of plastic. This prevents the need for flour which makes the pastry tough.
- The pastry should be rolled to approximately 2-3 mm thickness.
- If baking blind. Spray the pie tin with oil and line it with pastry.
- Place baking paper inside the tart shell and add weights. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove the baking weights and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Notes
Log in: Then add your own recipe notes below!
Nutrition
I hope you have enjoyed this story. Feel free to leave a comment or start a discussion. If you have made a dish from this site, I would love to know what you thought!
Leaving a comment and a star rating helps others decide if they should try my recipe. Plus, if you hit the social media share buttons, your friends may find a delicious new recipe or Thermomix Tip too!
If you want to be notified when a new recipe is released, sign up for my monthly newsletter. The form is also in the footer!
Thank you for stopping by,
Happy Cooking
j xx
Leave a Reply