Daphne Oz’s Honey & Cardamom Salted Caramel Tart Is a Slice of Edible Love

If you’re looking for a little slice of edible love, then look no further than this honey cardamom salted caramel tart by one of our favorite chefs (and dear friends), Daphne Oz. And while at first glance it might appear complicated, Oz assures us that it truly is anything but. You literally press the chocolate cookie crust into a tart base—no rolling needed—to nail an exquisitely tender crust. Then simply pour in the luscious caramel layer, top it off with 2-ingredient (but very professional looking) chocolate ganache, and a sprinkle of crunchy, flaky sea salt—voilà! Dessert is done. Easy, healthy-ish, and romantic to spoil a loved one or your cravings what that sweet tooth strikes. 

But first, we took five with Oz to learn more about her incredible career, what inspires her in the kitchen, her new book, and so much more! Be sure to scroll to the end for the recipe. (You can also watch the video of Daphne making this tart from scratch on Instagram!)

NAME: Daphne Oz

PROFESSION: Emmy Award-winning television host, New York Times best-selling author, natural foods chef, currently co-hosting The Good Dish and MasterChef Jr (premieres March 17 on FOX!)

INSTAGRAM: @daphneoz

WEBSITE: daphneoz.com

PHILOSOPHY ON FOOD? Confident, intuitive, joyful cooking is a way to make every single day more beautiful, more adventurous, more delicious, and more fun.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE RECIPE YOU’RE SHARING WITH US? This Honey & Cardamom Salted Caramel Tart is the ultimate example of how you can deliver maximum impact while paring down your effort—so you can spend more time enjoying yourself! The tender chocolate crust gets pressed into the tart form, so there’s no rolling to struggle through. The salted caramel is simply a game of patience, waiting for water and sugar to combine and caramelize into an amber pool, then you thicken it with heavy cream and vanilla to a lusciously smooth and slightly chewy texture. A quick two-ingredient dark chocolate ganache provides the perfect finishing touch, and a lovely bitter juxtaposition to the sweet, beguiling caramel and cookie crust underneath. More flaky salt on top for fun!

COOKING MAKES ME FEEL… Adventurous. Free.

BRIEFLY, HOW YOU CAME TO DO WHAT YOU DO: 

Brevity makes it sound so linear… which it definitely was not! But here goes: I wrote my first book The Dorm Room Diet to detail the healthy lifestyle plan I developed to lose 40 pounds in college without ever giving up my love of food. The book tour gave me the opportunity to speak to audiences nationally and appear across a variety of TV shows, and I was thrilled to be cast as one of five co-hosts on ABC’s The Chew at 25. I hosted the show for six seasons and attended culinary school at The Natural Gourmet Institute and studied nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to continue to develop my passions for cooking and wellness.

I went on to appear across all kinds of television platforms, including Good Morning America, Today, Food Network, and Rachel Ray. And I am thrilled to co-host our new show, The Good Dish with my ladies Gail Simmons and Jamika Pessoa (watch us weekdays for delicious recipes and lots of laughs in the kitchen!) and to be joining my men, Gordon Ramsay and Aaron Sanchez as the newest judge on MasterChef Jr, premiering March 17 on FOX! My kids are literally losing their minds in anticipation of this season. I was actually pregnant with my fourth, Gigi when we were filming, and I’m so excited to get to watch the show live with her now and hear her commentary on the outside.  

My newest cookbook, Eat Your Heart Out, comes out this April. It’s 150 recipes free from gluten- and refined-sugar that I use as part of a reset whenever I feel like my healthy habits have fallen off and need renewing—like after having my babies, or from too much stress or celebration! I’m so excited to bring this book out because it really is a testament to my feeling that taking good care of yourself should always be delicious. I love good food. I don’t believe in eating anything that is bland or boring. Writing this book took nearly five years because I was really committed to creating recipes that would be equal parts satisfying and celebratory while helping me achieve my health goals and be easy enough I wouldn’t resist making them. I can’t wait to get to share it. 

BIGGEST SINGLE INFLUENCE ON YOUR COOKING STYLE? Cooking at my mother and grandmother’s elbows, and my endless love for traveling, exploring, wandering, and tasting. Every time I cook, it’s an ode to family and friends, or a chance to stamp my passport without leaving home.

THE RECIPE OR MEAL YOU’RE KNOWN FOR? My Grandmother’s Eggless Caesar Salad (so garlicky! So lemony! So delicious!). My Spicy Rigatoni Alla Vodka or Fresh Sungold Tomato Sauce, so sweet and tangy and just a touch creamy. Grilled whole branzino stuffed with herbs and lemon. I love a Torta Caprese to finish a dinner party, but I do have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I consider to be THE chocolate chip cookie, all toffee wrinkles, and chewy center and melting chocolate laters. Honestly, I think we should make all of the above right now.

ESSENTIAL KITCHEN TOOL? Aside from a great chef’s knife, a beautiful wooden spoon that can do it all.

TRIED-AND-TRUE ENTERTAINING TIP? I’ve become a big fan of simple abundance. I don’t make a million appetizers, I just put out a large curated selection. Heaps of sliced Persian cucumbers to dip into a bath of creamy labneh, anointed with olive oil, fresh herbs, and chile salt. Big handfuls of roughly broken parmesan and olives. Torn bread to dip. I find it goes such a long way toward making people feel really well taken care of if you make the choices easy and the visuals glorious. And never run out of booze or ice. Light plenty of candles for flattering light, intoxicating scent, and instant mood.

3 INGREDIENTS YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT? Olive oil, garlic, herbs.

QUIRKY FOOD HABITS? I am a snacker from way back and love to graze. Tiny chunks of cheese and pickle on a chip. Pretzels dipped into honey mustard. Sliced turkey and a thin slick of mayo on a crisp leaf of romaine with oregano and salt. My current favorite is sliced Persian cucumber with a swizzle of sriracha over top. 

MIDNIGHT SNACK? Popcorn with butter, nutritional yeast, and salt! Salty dark chocolate.

BEST SOURCE FOR FOOD AND RECIPE INSPIRATION? Traveling!

SOUNDTRACK IN YOUR KITCHEN? Brigitte Bardot. Any Buddha Bar mix. 90s hip hop. Alt-J. The Sing 2 & Encanto soundtracks when my kids are DJing.

MOST SWOON-WORTHY RESTAURANT? Anywhere I can eat by the Bosporus. It is endlessly sexy, and Turkish food is my absolute favorite. But also the restaurant by the pool at Il Pellicano. Pure pleasure is warming in the Mediterranean sun, diving into the cool, blue sea, then drying off with a frozen bellini before hiking up the stone steps to the restaurant. Feast on their searing hot Fritto Misto and Spaghetti alla Vongole. Sip a stinging cold white wine. Affogato for dessert. Back to the sea and a book and the sun. 

I CAN NEVER RESIST… perfect NYC pizza. Korean fried chicken. Fresh peach ice cream. NJ bagels. Homemade chocolate chip cookies.

THEY SAY YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT—WHAT ARE YOU? Anything delicious.

HONEY & CARDAMOM SALTED CARAMEL TART

Daphne Oz

Prep time: 25 minutes + 2 hours 20 minutes cooling and refrigeration
Cook time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8 to 10

Ingredients for Chocolate Crust:

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 egg yolks

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 bag dried beans, for blind baking

Ingredients for Honey Caramel:

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

½ cup water

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

½ cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons honey

Ingredients for Chocolate Ganache:

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream

Flaky sea salt, for garnishing

Directions for the Chocolate Crust:

Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, add the butter, sugar, cardamom, cocoa powder, flour, egg yolks, and salt. Pulse until combined and a dough forms (it may not fully form into a ball, but easily pinches together to hold its shape between two fingers). The consistency of the dough should be between a classic pie crust and a shortbread cookie dough. If the dough feels too sandy after pulsing, pour the dough from the food processor out onto a cutting board and press all of the pieces into a ball, gently kneading the dough just once or twice to incorporate everything together. Then proceed to press the dough evenly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 ½ to 10-inch tart plate with a removable bottom.  

Prick the crust all over with the prongs of a fork. Crunch up a piece of parchment paper and lay into the tart shell. Fill the shell with baking beans (this process is called blind baking). Bake for 15 minutes with the beans then remove the tart shell and place the beans into a heatproof bowl. Return the tart shell to the oven for another 2 minutes to gently bake the bottom crust that was covered by the beans. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire baking rack to cool completely.

Directions for the Honey Caramel: 

Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Swirl around with your finger until the sugar is the consistency of wet sand. Be sure not to get sugar crystals on the side of the pot, they can burn and break the caramel—use a heat-resistant brush dipped in water to brush them off the sides of the pot if necessary. Turn the heat to medium and immediately begin timing 10 to 12 minutes. Do not stir the caramel as it’s cooking (sugars on the side of the pan can crystallize and cause the caramel to seize!), just swirl the pan occasionally to help the sugar evenly cook. 

Around the 9 minute mark, begin watching the caramel very carefully. Once the caramel turns blonde in color, remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour the heavy cream into the mixture and whisk to combine—the mixture will sputter, so be sure to hold the whisk with an oven mitt to avoid burning yourself! When you begin whisking, the mixture may seize up, but continue mixing and return the pan to low heat. The cream will soon melt into the caramel and become smooth and creamy.  

Gently whisk in the butter and the salt. The mixture will bubble, continue to simmer until thickened, about 2 to 3 minutes, whisking frequently, the caramel should be glossy and you see nice ribbons of caramel when whisking. To see if the caramel is ready to remove from the heat, dip a metal spoon into the caramel, it should easily coat the back of the spoon nicely. Allow the caramel on the spoon to cool slightly, then carefully run your finger down the center of the caramel on the back of the spoon and the canal in the caramel should be able to hold its shape. 

Remove from the heat and whisk another 2 to 3 minutes to allow the caramel to begin cooling, the caramel will continue to thicken as it cools. Whisk in the honey once it’s slightly cooled and allow the caramel to cool for another 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, before pouring into the tart shell—this allows the caramel to thicken even more. Pour into the tart shell and refrigerate for an hour or two until set. 

Directions for the Chocolate Ganache: 

Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once simmering, pour the cream over the chocolate and allow the chocolate to sit for a couple of minutes, then stir to combine until a smooth ganache forms. 

Pour over the chilled tart and top with flaky sea salt. Place back into the fridge to set for another hour.  

When ready to serve, remove the tart from the tart shell, slice, and serve. After slicing, feel free to let the slices sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes or so if you prefer your desserts room temperature. Store the tart covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.