Butterscotch Brownie Tart

Diet? What diet? Oh, yeah, actually I made this right before I started the diet and am only getting around to posting it now. I guess it was sort of my last hurrah and it was oh so worthy. I was looking for something to make in my new tart pan and found this recipe on Epicurious.com, but had also come across a recipe for butterscotch sauce that I really wanted to make, so I decided to combine the two into one glorious dessert. Ok, well maybe not glorious, but if you like chocolate, brownies and butterscotch like I do, then it’s pretty damn close. The brownie part is rich and fudgey and the butterscotch sauce is buttery and sweet and silky and I just wanted to lick the whole saucepan clean after I made it. It’s especially great when still warm or rewarmed in the microwave. But even at room temperature the sauce never hardens.

As a whole this recipe is very easy to make. There’s some waiting time while you freeze/cook/cool the components to get them ready, but I think that’s pretty much par for the course with tarts? The actual assembly is easy and fast.

Butterscotch Brownie Tart

I think the only complaint I had about this recipe was the crust. It’s kind of…lacking. It wasn’t bad, but not fantastic either, it was just kind of there. I even added extra sugar to the original recipe and I still didn’t think it was sweet enough. But with the brownie filling and especially the butterscotch sauce, it’s not like the dessert doesn’t have enough sweetness to go around. I don’t have tons of experience with tart/pie crusts, so I’m not sure what else you could do to it other than add more sugar and maybe switch to a semi-sweet chocolate? If anyone has suggestions, I would love to hear them.

I was thinking when I made this again (because I will be making this again), that I might try the same crust I used for my Strawberry Tart, but add in cocoa or chocolate? That crust was really good, but it was hard to handle because it was so buttery. That is one good thing I can say about the crust for this recipe, it was very easy to put together (even if, like me, you don’t have food processor) and press into the pan.

Butterscotch Brownie Tart

Chocolate Butterscotch Brownie Tart

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adapted from Epicurious

Dessert | Yield: 1 10″ tart (8 servings)
Prep time: 30 min | Cook time: 30 min | Total time: 1 hour 30 min

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 cup flour
  • 3 tbsp. packed light brown sugar (maybe add another tablespoon?)
  • 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (maybe try semi-sweet/bittersweet instead?)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 6 tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 2 tbsp. milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla

Filling

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)

Butterscotch Sauce
from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt

Process

  1. Make the Crust: Chop the chocolate finely in a food processor or blender. Mix in the flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and cut in using on/off turns or manually using a pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk and vanilla; process/mix by hand until moist clumps form.
  2. Press dough over bottom and up sides of 10 or 11″ diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Freeze for 30 minutes.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 (F). Bake crust until just set and beginning to brown around edges, about 8 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.
  4. Make the Filling: Melt butter and chocolate in medium saucepan over low heat. Cool slightly. Beat sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt in medium bowl until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add in chocolate mixture. Mix in flour and nuts.
  5. Pour batter into cooled crust. Bake until filling puffs around edges and toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.
  6. Make the Sauce: Combine cream and butter in a small saucepan, cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted.
  7. Stir in sugar and salt. Stirring frequently, cook until the mixture is thick and shiny, 5 – 10 minutes. (Bittman says you can add in more sugar at this point if don’t think it’s sweet enough, but uh…I have about the biggest sweet tooth around and can’t imagine it needing more sugar.)
  8. Immediately pour over cooled brownie tart. You may not need/want to use it all (I LOVE butterscotch, so I used it all), if you have leftovers you can refrigerate it in a covered container for up to a week and rewarm to use it on other things.