Honey Nut Tart
This is high calorie but worth every bite. Nuts are a great source of protein and fibre, so that balances out the sugar if you need an excuse. And you can make little individual ones to try and control portion size! Use the freshest nuts possible as they can quickly go rancid, keep them in the fridge or even freeze them. Shop bought puff or short crust pastry will do just fine if you don’t have time to make your own. As the filling is very sweet avoid sweet pastry. If you prefer to make your own, you can use the pastry recipe from the Mushroom and Spinach tart.
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Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 10 mins (plus 2 hours cooling time)
Serves: 8
Honey Nut Tart
This is really easy to prepare in advance just needs a but of attention when cooking. Serve as a large tart or small tartlets
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Ingredients
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Enough pastry to cover the base of a flan case
For the filling
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250g of mixed fresh nuts, walnuts, pecan, hazelnuts, pine nuts, flaked almonds
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100g brown sugar
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160ml double or whipping cream
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100g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
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150g honey
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method​
Pre-bake the pastry:
Bake the crust at 375°F for 20 minutes (or following instructions for shop bought), until the edges are golden. Piercing the bottom with a fork or add baking stones or beans on top of greaseproof paper to stop the puff pastry rising. Leave to cool on a rack
Bring the sugar, honey, cream, nuts and butter to a gentle boil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Careful it doesn’t stick and burn on the bottom of the pan.
Pour the hot mixture into prepared tart base or individual shells if you’re doing small ones.
Leave to cool until firm for about 2 hours
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The nut mixture also makes a great sauce to pour hot over vanilla or chocolate ice cream
Accompaniments
This is really sweet so doesn’t need much, you can drizzle with dark chocolate if you wish and serve with crème fraiche rather than sweet ice cream. A blood orange sorbet would work really well too, the acidity being a great foil for the sweetness.
Wine
This goes surprisingly well with red wine, choose an older wine, as too much sweetness can make the tannins on a younger red wine stand out. A mellow aged red wine will be really good, perhaps an older, Cabernet driven left bank wine from Moulis or Listrac. Try Chateau Branas Grand Poujeaux.
If serving with the orange sorbet, a glass of sweet white would work but a Château de Cérons perhaps, lighter than a Sauternes. I know we are supposed to be about wine but if the mood takes you this tart works really well with a sip of Cognac too, nice and warming as the evenings draw in.