Caramel Tart

The ULTIMATE salted caramel tart made with a brown butter crust, fresh homemade salted caramel sauce and topped with the most luscious toasted brown sugar meringue. 

It’s that time of year again friends. Where family and friends come together to eat as much pie as they possibly could, it’s pie season! 

I know you can’t ever replace the classics like apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie but if you’re willing to make room for a new pie at the dinner table this year, Danish Creamery and I believe this caramel tart is perfect. 

And if you have extra room for more new pies at the dinner table, you’ll want to try my pumpkin cheesecake, my mom’s rustic apple pie or this super indulgent chocolate hazelnut tart. 

Why you’ll love this caramel tart recipe

• There’s like 7 total ingredients, including the salt. 
• The sweetness of all the caramel is balanced with the savory notes from the brown butter crust, and the salt of course.
• The perfect ‘make-ahead’ dessert, just top it with meringue the day of serving. Serves well cold or at room temperature. 

Ingredients & substitutions

• Butter: Butter is a main flavor in the caramel and the crust so I used my absolute favorite, of course, Danish Creamery’s European Style Butter with Sea Salt. The butter’s 85% butterfat makes the caramel sauce rich and creamy while the salt really helps balance the sweetness.
• Sugar: I used granulated sugar in the crust and in the caramel sauce. I don’t recommend substituting that.
  • I used brown sugar in the meringue for a little extra richness but both brown sugar and granulated sugar work for the meringue. 
• Heavy Cream: use room temperature heavy cream or whipping cream so the hot sugar doesn’t splatter as much.
• Flour: I used a little bit of all-purpose flour in the crust. I HIGHLY recommend using a digital scale to measure all the ingredients, especially flour. 
• Eggs: Use large, room temperature egg whites for the meringue. You can also use pasteurized carton egg whites. 
• Vanilla: I recommend vanilla bean paste or actual vanilla beans. If you’re in a pinch, pure vanilla extract works well too. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Brown the butter by heating a stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. It will melt, bubble, foam and then the milk solids will toast and settle on the bottom. Make sure to read my whole post on browning butter if you haven’t done it before. 

Step 2: Make the crust by combining the brown butter with the sugar and flour just until it looks like a dough. Spread it into a shallow greased tart pan and freeze until it’s solid.

Step 3: Blind bake the crust halfway with baking beads, then remove the beads and finish baking. Allow the crust to cool to room temperature.

Step 4: Make the caramel sauce by caramelizing sugar until it’s a dark amber color. Then stir in the butter followed by the heavy cream.

Stir in the salt and vanilla and allow it to cool until it’s not piping hot, about an hour. Pour on top of the cooled crust and allow it to cool completely. Refrigerate until the caramel is set. 

If you’ve never made caramel sauce, make sure to read my whole post on homemade salted caramel sauce. The process and rules are the same but I tweaked the ratio to make it more stiff so it doesn’t leak out the crust when sliced.

Step 5: Make the meringue by gently heating egg whites and sugar over a double boiler, just until the sugar is fully dissolved (eggs are considered safe at 160F (71C) if you’re worried about that). Then beat the egg whites and sugar for about 5 minutes until they’re super fluffy and no longer warm. 

Step 6: Spread meringue on top of the caramel and use a culinary torch to toast the top of the meringue. Serve fresh. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How to store tart

To refrigerate, cover the tart with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 2-4 days. Serve cold or bring to room temperature 1-2 hours before serving. 

I don’t recommend freezing because meringues can easily separate and pie/tart crusts get soggy when they defrost. 

Thanks so much for reading today’s post, if you have any questions just comment down below. Make sure to leave it in the comment section because I can’t answer in the rating section.

If you make my gorgeous caramel tart, I’d love it if you left a star rating for me. If it’s less than five stars, please leave a comment with the rating so I know why! 🙂

As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!

Love, B