Coffee Caramel Chocolate Tart

And the last ins/outs take you'll read

Are Ins/Outs … out? Based on the comments section of this The Cut IG post on the supposed “comeback” of pomegranates, I don’t know if our collective online nervous system can really handle big sweeping proclamations about what’s in and out anymore. Our zeitgeist is at this weird intersection of 1. the view that “not everything is going to be perfectly representative of your experience or how you want the world to be” (or more simply, “not everything is for you”) — and 2. the reality that we are now much more sensitive, in good ways and bad, to our differences. Even I shared my ins/outs list for 2024 on TikTok, which were more like a collection of guesstimates based on evidence (but mostly vibes!) — or “ins” that I don’t think will happen but that I want to happen.

And those are important distinctions because, documenting the ebb and flow of certain trends as a cultural commenter, or even promoting or creating new trends as a tastemaker, doesn’t mean that, for other people, these “ins” or “outs” aren’t just constants of life. Maybe those people aren’t your precise intended audience, but since we’re on social media in a globalized world, the whole world is supposedly your audience. And while some posters are prescribing what others should be doing, wearing, eating, etc. in the new year, others are simply predicting these things or noting how they are ramping up.

But these ins/outs lists and prediction videos are a trend of their own. They get engagement for a good reason: they make people angry, or at the very least trigger them to fight for or against something, even trivial stuff like Stanley Quenchers or low rise jeans. And it’s because our habits, the food we eat, even the water bottles we buy, they are part of our identity. So when some stranger on the internet comes for that, we feel like we need to speak up.

And I totally get if you hate that something you’ve always held close is “trendy” all of a sudden. That is a universal feeling. And the opposite is true — no one who really likes their Stanley Quencher is going to appreciate being told they’re out. Plus, some trends are burning through their short lives in a year or less — from start to peak to petering— and its *way* faster for trends like memes or TikTok formats. And trend *cycles* are repeating themselves faster than ever (like, within a decade or two), thanks to social media and our increased reliance on nostalgia, respectively. So perhaps in the future both will just speed up so much that everything starts to just blend together, or maybe our siloed algorithms will lead us into more specific cultures where big sweeping trends don’t matter or don’t apply to us and we’ll continue on our path away from the mono-culture and go toward …. micro-cultures?

Anyway … instead of ins and outs, this time I’ll share some things I started doing in 2023 that made my life better — and some things I want to do less of in 2024.

Things I started doing in 2023 that I want to do more of

Tea
I have trouble sleeping if I have more than like 2.5 cups of coffee a day, especially if the last one comes after 12 p.m. I for a long time had an aversion to tea because it reminded me of when I had to drink it when I was home sick as a kid. But I still drink it when I’m sick because it helps, and, at some point early this year I just kept buying it even though I wasn’t sick. It helps when I want a warm beverage in the middle of the day, or right before bed, but I’ve hit my coffee limit. I’m mainly drinking chamomile but I want recommendations so comment yours!

Rice cooker
I know I didn’t discover the rice cooker. I’m *very* late to this, I just never thought I wanted to own a gadget that had one main purpose in the kitchen. I thought every kitchen tool that takes up valuable space in my Brooklyn apartment needs to be versatile. (Rice cookers can obviously do more than just cook rice.) And while I know how to make rice without a rice cooker, and I have an InstaPot that I thought could make rice but actually SUCKS at it, I just needed an easier way. So for a long time I bought microwaveable rice, which was great, actually. But then my roommate bought a rice cooker, which he hasn’t used at all, but I have used several times. I love it so much. It’s made by Aroma and I’m never going back to my old ways.

Sharpening my knives
You know the feeling when you get off a treadmill and you start walking around ton the unmoving ground and you feel like, wow this is so easy it’s almost like floating? That’s how it feels using a freshly sharpened knife. One of the perks of my kitchen is for some reason a previous tenant left their sharpening whetstone, and I’ve been learning how to use it. I just need to do it more than like once a year.

Thing I want to do less of in 2024:

Listening to Podcasts and Music
There was a point last year where I couldn’t even shower without listening to two voices yammer on about something. I can’t walk around my neighborhood without listening to Taylor Swift or Pod Save America (I know!). During times when my mind is unoccupied like doing the dishes, I have the urge to drown out those pesky thoughts, so in the AirPods go. And during times when I’m working, whether it’s filming recipe videos or writing this newsletter, I also want to listen to the shows I find funny or informative. But all listening really does during free time is clog up brainwave space that, if it were available, would help me problem-solve, remember important things, come up with new creative ideas, organize the clutter in my head. And all it does during my work is distract me, as I am totally unable to multitask, which either leads to mistakes or tasks taking twice as long.

Updates

We Blew Past 100 Paid Subscribers!
When I started the newsletter in April, I set the goal of getting to 100 paid subscribers by the end of the year. It was a bit of a stretch, but we hit it halfway through December! And even if you’re reading for free, supporting the newsletter means a lot to me, so thank you!

author

Food Blogger Pro on Instagram: “Happy New Year! 🎆 This week on The Food Blogger Pro Podcast, Bjork interviews Eric King from @easygayoven. In this clip from the episode, Eric explains how he creates content for TikTok and Instagram that will (hopefully) stand out from the crowd. To hear the entire interview, tune into the rest of this episode of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast at https://link.chtbl.com/fbp-442 or on your favorite podcasting app! 🎧”

January 12, 2024

Baby’s First Podcast
Back at the start of 2023, I basically took all of January off from social media and recipe work, and focused instead on fixing my website and learning about SEO. I stumbled on the podcast Food Blogger Pro and listened to a BUNCH of them because they were so helpful on the aforementioned topics. And they wanted to talk so of course I obliged! We talk about: how I got started, what I did before easygayoven, my approach to social media and food blogging, and what it takes to survive the algorithm hellscape!

This Week’s Recipe

I always want to challenge my taste profiles and try to expand and challenge them when I can, coming up with new and interesting flavors or ingredient combinations. But I always come crawling back to chocolate and caramel. It’s so easy. It’s so right. You cannot go wrong.

But we’re pumping up the jam with coffee. In all of it: the crust, the chewy salted caramel and the chocolate ganache. It comes in the form of espresso powder in the tart dough, and hot heavy cream steeped with crushed coffee beans and half a vanilla bean (optional). It smells like coffee ice cream and also your favorite coffee shop in 2009. Some of the cream is added to the caramel and the rest is added to the ganache.

Feel free to split this into two days of work. Make the tart dough and chill it, or roll it out and then chill it. You could even fit it into the tin, wrap that really well and freeze until ready to use. There’s also nothing stopping you from baking the shell, wrapping it really well in its tin, then finishing it the next day.

Just bookmark this sh*t now because Valentine’s/Galentine’s is coming up and you’re going to want this I promise. Store it uncovered in the fridge before serving to not disturb the top. You could also overturn a large bowl on it. Allow it to warm up a bit at room temp so the caramel relaxes and doesn’t break anyones tooth off.

Coffee Caramel Chocolate Tart

Makes one round 9 or 10-inch tart, serves 12-16

Ingredients

Tart 

• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (141 grams)

• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar (55 g)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 large egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)

• 3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

• 1/4 cup Dutch Process cocoa powder (23 grams)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (163 grams)

Coffee Caramel

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (248 grams)

• 1/4 cup water (60 milliliters)

• 1 tablespoon corn syrup (15 grams)

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1/4 cup whole coffee beans, very coarsely crushed (20 grams)

• Half a vanilla bean (optional)

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes

• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon table salt)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Ganache 

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, very finely chopped

Directions

1. Make the tart shell. In a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, beat the butter and sugar until creamy and totally smooth. Add the egg yolk, vanilla, salt, espresso powder and cocoa powder, and mix on low just until it all comes together. You will need to scrape down the bowl a few times.

2. Dump in the flour and pulse just until the dough comes together and starts to ball up in the mixer. You can also make this dough with softened butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; just follow the same instructions.

3. Scrape out the dough onto a sheet of parchment or a silicone mat. Cover with another sheet of parchment or silicone mat (or even plastic wrap) and roll it out to a big circle with about a 1/6-inch thickness. When you place your tart pan in the center of the dough, you should have about a 1.5-inch border all the way around. Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F and set a rack to the middle position. Remove the top layer of parchment (or silicone or plastic wrap) from the dough and invert it onto a 9 or 10-inch round tart tin. Peel off the remaining parchment and gently encourage the dough to sink down into the pan. You may have to be patient and let it warm up a bit so it doesn’t crack. Press the dough into the pan and run a sharp knife around the edges to cut off any excess (which you can use to patch any cracks or holes.)

5. Chill the tart in the freezer until very firm, about 10 minutes. Crumple up one of the parchment sheets and place it in the tart shell. Fill it with pie weights (dried beans or sugar also work well). Bake for 9 minutes, then lift the weights out of the shell, dock holes in the shell all over with a fork, and continue baking for 6 minutes or until it looks dry and totally set. Cool on a wire rack.

6. Make the caramel. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them plus the pod to a small saucepan with the heavy cream and coffee beans. Heat on the stove over medium-low just until the mixture is barely simmering, then turn the heat off and cover.

7. Heat the water, sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir just until combined. While that cooks, strain the heavy cream mixture, measure out 1/3 cup (79 milliliters) and set aside the rest. Keep that and the butter nearby.

8. Once the sugar mixture turns a deep amber color and you begin to see wisps of smoke, remove from the heat.

9. Pour the 1/3 cup of coffee-infused heavy cream into the caramel, then the butter, stirring vigorously until it comes together. Stir in the salt and vanilla extract (if not using a bean).

10. Return the caramel to the stovetop and cook on medium-low until a candy or instant-read thermometer reads 240°F. Immediately remove from the heat and pour into the baked tart shell.

11. Place the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Reheat the remaining coffee-infused heavy cream (should be about 1/2 cup) just until very hot (you can do this in the microwave for about 20 seconds). Immediately pour the hot cream evenly over the chocolate and cover with a plate. Allow to melt for a minute or so, then whisk the two together, starting just in the middle and slowly working your way out. Stop stirring as soon as the ganache is smooth. If the chocolate needs a little more heat to melt fully, microwave the bowl in 5-second intervals. Spread the ganache in a circle on top of the set caramel. Chill in the refrigerator to set completely (about an hour).

12. Before serving, allow the tart to warm up a bit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Heating up a sharp knife over a stove burner or in some hot water will make slicing super easy.