I'm making a salted caramel and peanut butter chocolate tart for the first time. I'm after advice of what would work well alongside it. The recipe looks very rich (which you can probably tell from the description).

I'm thinking one or either of the following:
1. Salted caramel ice-cream
2. A flavoured cream of some sort - eg make a salted caramel sauce and fold through the cream (but what sort of cream?)

Would serving both be an overkill? And I don't normally eat cream and I don't know what sort to use with different types of dessert so any advice would be appreciated! And any other ideas of alternative sides would be great.

I'm also thinking of buying an ice-cream machine to make my own ice cream. I don't want to spend a fortune, so if any of you have feedback on good/bad brands or types let me know.

I would serve something as rich and sweet as that with a simple scoop of crème fraîche or unsweetened Greek yoghurt. The mild acidity would balance the sweetness. In fact when I think about it I would probably drain some Clearwater's cream top yoghurt overnight to make labna and serve a scoop of that.

I would serve it with quality vanilla ice cream.
I don't think I would like he acidity of yoghurt with it but a creamy vanilla ice cream would be my pick.
Homemade ice cream generally needs a proper machine to make it as good as the quality ice creams on the market.
Good machines come with a hefty price tag.
I have one where the bowl is frozen first and then the ice cream churned in it and frozen but I don't think it is that great and prefer to buy it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2016 02:55AM by helen.

Warmed peaches but since this will be difficult at this time of the year, poached mandarins or oranges (fruit only served, not the syrup) e.g.:
[www.marthastewart.com]
[aredbinder.com]



.

Like TPANDAV, I would serve creme fraiche or yoghurt with your tart - to me you don't need any more sweetness.

Re ice cream makers, I have one like Helen's where you freeze the bowl first - the brand is Krups. I got it with my Fly Buys points some years ago so not sure what it cost or whether they are still available. It works OK, but I wouldn't say it produced ice cream like store bought brands and to be honest I have used it less and less over time.

The really good ones have their own compressor so no need to freeze the bowl - I see a Cuisinart model on Milly's website for $769.

Regards,

Barbara Anne

Poached pears go great with caramel and chocolate. I would add little/no sugar, enough in the tart.
A mixture of whipped cream and Greek Yoghurt is always good with most desserts. Quantities dependant on taste.
Ruth

I would loosen crème fraiche with a little sour cream and serve that with the tart.
Re ice cream maker, I have a bowl that needs freezing first. It's the Donvier brand. Like Helen and Barbara Anne, I would not rave about it. I dug it out last summer after not having used it for nearly 20 years. The quantity it makes is just right for our little household of two. I don't think I'd bother buying this sort of ice cream maker.

I like the idea of the sour cream with crème fraiche but as I don't really like sweet with sweet, especially something as rich as the salted caramel and peanut butter tart, I would be inclined to add some fine lemon or lime zest to the cream mixture.
Or do the same with vanilla ice cream.

I've made something similar recently, I just served it on it's own, but I think the poached pears would be really good with it. Cream is too rich, and the flavour profile of the yogurt/sour cream/creme fraiche options would be wrong in my opinion. I think a not too sweet vanilla ice cream would be a good second option, or maybe a dark chocolate (slightly bitter) sorbet?

I'd go for a good vanilla ice cream to cut the sweetness.

Re ice cream makers, I've found the types with the bowl you freeze are pretty much of a muchness (I've had both Breville and Cuisinart and they both performed the same). The compressor ones are very spendy and I've never felt the need for one as the freezer bowl ones turn out excellent ice cream for me. You need to keep the bowl in the coldest part of the freezer and make sure your ingredients are cold, and it's a good idea NOT to do as I did with my first one and wash the bowl with hot or warm water! Apparently this damages the stuff inside ( had no idea) and consequently it was less and less effective over time. Since buying a new one and not letting anything but cold water near the bowl I've had no fall-off of performance. I find the homemade stuff a thousand times better than even the super-expensive premium brands so for me the fairly inexpensive (compared to a compressor model) freezer bowl ice cream maker is a very worthwhile investment.

What goes well with both peanut butter and chocolate? Bananas! Freeze the required number of bananas, then allow them to sit for 5 minutes before whizzing them in a blender or food processer and Voila! Banana Ice Cream.

I have a Breville Scoop ice cream maker (freeze the bowl type) and it makes wonderful ice cream provided I make a custard. Over the years I have developed my own custard base which produces consistently good ice cream.

200 ml milk
3 egg yolks
100 g sugar
200 ml cream
Flavour, such as chocolate, caramel, fruit etc.
2 tablespoons alcohol, complimentary to the fruit

Heat the milk in a small saucepan and bring almost to a boil. Remove from the stove and let it cool while you do the next step.

Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until the sugar crystals have dissolved and the colour becomes light and pale. Pour the warm milk over the egg and sugar while constantly stirring (slowly, otherwise you will end up with foam).

Reheat the custard mix slowly while continuously stirring/scraping the bottom of the pot until it has noticeably thickened, 79ºC - 82ºC (85º is boiling point), and coats the back of a spoon or heatproof rubber spatula. Hold at temperature for 1 minute, but do not let it boil or it will curdle. Remove from heat and cool down in sink of cold water for a few minutes.

Add the cream, fruit/flavourings and half the alcohol.
Chill in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.

Churn for about 20-30 minutes till fluffy , adding more alcohol if necessary (don't overpower the taste of the fruit. The alcohol is to stop the ice cream freezing solid but it's nice to taste a hint of what you have used).
Pour into a container and freeze.

Here is a list of some possible flavour combinations:

Feijoa, lemon/lime, feijoa vodka
Chocolate (bottled sauce, grated chocolate or Milo/Ovaltine), Baileys
Strawberries, balsamic vinegar & plain vodka
Apricots (tinned & puréed or fresh chopped), brandy
Christmas Pudding: dried mixed fruit soaked in real orange juice (and zest) and bourbon
Golden and/or green kiwifruit, lime, kiwifruit vodka
Mashed banana, lime and rum (substitute the cream with coconut cream)
Avocado, chocolate, plain vodka

Thanks for all the great ideas - both for sides for the tart and on ice cream makers! I've made the pastry this weekend and will assemble the tarts next weekend. This will be a dry run and I'll try the tarts with a couple of sides to see what works best.

I've made some salted caramel (no churn) ice cream that isn't overly sweet, plus I'll try plain yoghurt and plain marscapone (potentially with a small amount of salted caramel sauce swirled through). The sorbet idea is something else I might try another time given I've made the ice cream. The pears etc sound interesting and I might try them another time. I've also got a recipe for peanut flavoured banana ice cream that could work well.

Here is the tart recipe if you're interested:
[www.dish.co.nz]

And the ice cream recipe I whipped up today which was very simple (I made it without the nuts). I'm a bit obsessed with salted caramel at the moment - I discovered I can whip it up in 10 minutes in my Thermomix without having the hassle of carefully dissolving sugar etc :-)
[bromabakery.com]

I'll give you an update on how it all works out next weekend.

My family were very happy guinea pigs! I served the tart up with 3 sides and got them to rate what they preferred the most. I was hoping for a definitive answer, however opinions were really varied. In order of preference the top choice was marscapone, followed by ice cream, then yoghurt (Puhoi Valley plain greek). They loved the tart and they loved the ice cream however some people did find them too rich together. So when I make it next time I'll do the marscapone. I didn't do the plain vanilla ice cream as I don't have a nice no-churn recipe (and I want to do 100% home made for this event).

Thanks everyone for your advice :-)

Dare I say just a spoon....YUM

A sour cream, thick cream yoghurt or mascapone cheese would be my preference.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/2016 03:23AM by Vanessa45.