Chocolate Caramel Tarts

I love these and often make them for my stalls but as it's Vegan Mofo I thought I would share my recipe with you! They are a wonderful shortcake biscuit pastry base with a gooey caramel center topped with lots of melted dark chocolate and are probably in my top 5 favourite things to eat! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Make 6 Mini 4.5'' Tarts

Ingredients: 

Pastry:

2 1/2 Cups of White flour
1 1/2 Cups of vegan margarine
1/2 Cup of Icing Sugar
1/4 Cup of soya milk

Caramel:
1 Carton of Coconut Cream (Blue Dragon)
1/4 Cup of Organic Unrefined Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Topping:

2 100g Bars of Dark Chocolate 

Flaked Almonds

Tools:

6 4.5'' Mini Flan Tins

Baking Beans

Baking Paper

In a bowl incorporate the margarine and sugar into the flour, rubbing between your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add your soya milk a bit at a time and bring together to form a dough. Grease and flour your tins then roll out the pastry and lay over the tins gently pressing into each one and then use a knife to trim any excess pastry. Using some parchment and baking beans (you could use dried beans, lentil or rice if you don't have baking beans) blind bake the pastry for 20 mins in a 200c oven. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

In a sauce pan bring to the boil the carton of coconut cream, sugar and salt. Once at the boil reduce to a medium heat and stir. It should now becoming more opaque and thick and will not easily run off your spoon, it takes a good 10-15 minutes to reach this point. Once it is thick and has a light golden colour, it is ready to pour into your cooled pastry cases. 

Next chop all your chocolate into rough small cubes. Place half of the chocolate in a bain marie (a saucepan of boiling water with a bowl on the top for your chocolate to melt in) Stir occasionally until completely melted and glossy. Next take it off the heat and add the rest of the chocolate (this is a simple tempering method which will allow your chocolate to set with a nice shine to it) stir until it is melted. Pour it gently over the top of your caramel tarts, making sure to seal the edges of the tart with the chocolate so that the caramel doesn't run out when they are set. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and leave for 2-3 hours to set at room temperature.