merry christmas and the tale of the two-day tart

The holidays are the time to make extravagant, time-consuming, and unnecessary desserts for friends and family (and yourself).

Today, I bring you the story of the Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart that was anticipated for two days. And.worth.every.second.

We celebrated Christmas Eve early this year, on December 20 to be exact. In our world (as I imagine in most other sane human beings' worlds) our festivities center around food. Delicious food. 

In my head that means we need chocolate. Decadent chocolate.

Enter this Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart. The moment I pinned this baby on Pinterest I knew I had to make it. And then eat it. And my family agreed.

My dad searched out the specialty ingredients (Dutch process cocoa powder and creme fraiche) while I plotted the 15 hour baking extravaganza that would be necessary to eventually taste the salted caramel goodness.

Step by step this tart slowly came to life. I knew it was going to be worth all our effort the moment we each stuck a finger into the cooled caramel-making pot - paused, smiled, and said almost in unison, "man, that is like....real caramel!" Success.

It took four adults and two days. But, in the end we had one of the most beautiful and delicious desserts you could imagine. So beautiful in fact I considered (for a moment) charging our guests for its consumption.

This tart is a culmination of a dark chocolate cookie-like crust, a creamy and sweet caramel, a shiny and rich bittersweet chocolate ganache, and a perfectly necessary sprinkle of sea salt.

My words just aren't doing this tart justice. I'm afraid you just have to make it yourselves to truly know its beauty. That's right, I am instructing you to make this tart. And then eat it. And make your family eat it, too. Damn, I'm tough.

And that, dear readers, is the story of the the two-day chocolate tart. A perfectly sweet way to kick off our holiday festivities.

And now, I hope you'll excuse my pending lack of posts as I continue to enjoy delicious food and time with family.

The two most important pieces of any Christmas season.

Happy less serious holidays.

-Sara @my less serious life-