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Caramelized Nut Tart Recipe

Filed under Bakery, Dessert, Thanksgiving

Caramelized Nut Tart

Here is a delicious autumn nut tart that you can make with practically any mixture of nuts. Just make sure you get the freshest nuts possible - from your local farmers market, or from the bins at stores with high turnover like Whole Foods. We use nuts frozen from last year's harvest. Nuts will get rancid, so definitely check for that before using. Freeze any nuts left over. The recipe is from Bon Appétit magazine, December 1998 issue. The Bon Appétit recipe calls for the drizzling of melted white chocolate on top of the tart for decorative effect. Just melt a ounce of white chocolate over a double boiler and use a fork to drizzle swirls on top of the tart. I don't think this tart needs any more sweetness, so we skipped that step. But it is excellent with whipped cream.

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Caramelized Nut Tart Recipe

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Filling Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
2/3 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds

Whipped cream (optional)

9 1/2 inch tart pan with removable bottom

Method

Crust:

1 Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in processor. Add butter. Using pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Mix in vanilla and enough ice water by tablespoonfuls to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

2 Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll dough out on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer dough to 9 1/2-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Fold overhang in and press, forming high-standing double-thick sides. Pierce dough all over with fork. Freeze 15 minutes.

3 Bake crust until set but still pale in color, piercing with fork if crust bubbles, about 20 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool. Increase oven temperature to 400°F.

Filling:

nut-tart-a.jpg nut-tart-b.jpg

4 Combine sugar and 1/4 cup water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat. Boil without stirring until caramel is deep amber color, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush and swirling pan, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium.

nut-tart-c.jpg
Gradually whisk in cream (mixture will bubble). Stir until caramel is smooth. Add butter, honey and vanilla. Stir until well blended. Mix in all nuts.

5 Pour caramel mixture into crust. Bake until entire filling bubbles, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on rack.

Serve with whipped cream (optional).

Serves 10.

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Posted by Elise on Nov 16, 2006 and indexed Almonds, Nuts, Pecans, Pie, Pie Crust, Tart, Thanksgiving, Walnuts

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Comments

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love nut pies. My aunt makes an amazing pecan pie every Thanksgiving, but adding walnuts and almonds sounds pretty special.

Posted by: Lady Amalthea on October 26, 2005 5:22 PM

This sounds delicious. My grandfather used to prepare a sweet potato pie with pecans and this recipe reminded me of how much I love sweet nut filled desserts. Thank you for sharing it.

Posted by: Michele on October 26, 2005 9:00 PM

I just have to comment on this - this was a HUGE hit at our Thanksgiving dinner! One of best desserts I have ever had the pleasure of baking and eating. Top recipe!!

Posted by: Somia on November 28, 2005 10:24 AM

Hi Lady - nut pies are great, aren't they? Not so forgiving for the waistline... ah well. You only live once.

Hi Michele - sweet potato pie with pecans is another great use of pecans. Yummm.

Hi Somia - I'm so glad you made the pie! Isn't just fabulous? I brought some to my acupuncturist who declared it the best pie he'd ever had, ever.

Posted by: elise [TypeKey Profile Page] on November 29, 2005 8:39 PM

One of the best recipes I have made...I love making desserts and this one received rave reviews.

Posted by: susan ohlson on January 11, 2006 5:59 PM

I am very grateful to you sharing this recipe. This is really amazing. I own a bakery and my hobby is to try new recipes. It's a really good one. Again thank you very much for sharing such a wonderful recipe.

Posted by: louis on July 26, 2006 8:22 AM

Elise, this looks amazing!

I have some walnuts at home and they need to be used - the perfect excuse! :D

Posted by: Patricia Scarpin on November 16, 2006 4:43 AM

I made this and I suggest raising the amount of water in the caramel to 1/2 cup because the sugar kept crystallizing and it was easier with more water. You definitely need to wash down the sides of the pan with water because if you don't it will crystallize!

Posted by: Caitlin on November 23, 2007 2:54 PM

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