Périgord Walnut Tart Food

PéRIGORD WALNUT TART

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl (or pulse in a food processor). Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in processor) until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Beat together egg and 3 tablespoons ice water with a fork and stir into flour mixture (or pulse) until incorporated.
• Squeeze a small handful: If dough doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until incorporated. (Do not overwork mixture or pastry will be tough.)
• Gather dough together, with a pastry scraper if you have one, and press into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Make pastry shell:
• Roll out dough between 2 sheets of plastic wrap into a 12-inch round. (If dough becomes too soft to work with, chill until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.) Fit dough into tart pan (discard plastic wrap), pressing against side. Run rolling pin over top edge to cut off excess dough, then press side to make dough come up slightly above edge of pan. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes.
• Make filling and bake tart:
• Line a 4-sided sheet pan with foil and put in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Lightly toast walnuts in sheet pan, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and return pan to oven.
• Heat cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
• Bring water and 1 1/2 cups sugar to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then wash down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil, without stirring, swirling pan occasionally so caramel colors evenly, until amber.
• Remove from heat and immediately but slowly add hot cream (it will bubble furiously). Once bubbles subside, stir in walnuts and butter and cook over medium heat, stirring, 2 minutes.
• Pour filling into tart shell and sprinkle evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake in sheet pan 25 minutes (check tart after 15 minutes, and if top becomes too dark in spots, loosely cover with foil).
• Reduce oven to 325°F and bake until filling is set and deep golden-brown and crust is golden, 10 to 15 minutes more (filling may spill over edge in spots).
• Cool tart to warm in tart pan, 30 to 45 minutes, then remove side of pan (do not cool completely before removing side of pan or tart will stick). Serve warm or at room temperature.

MAPLE WALNUT TARTS

Steps:

• To make pastry: in a medium bowl, combine flour,sugar,salt and baking powder.
• Cut in butter or margarine and shortening until mixture is crumbly.
• Add water, 2 tbsp at a time, mixing with a fork; add a little more or less than the 1/2 c water as needed.
• Press mixture into 2 flat disks, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• To make filling: beat together eggs, syrup, brown sugar, melted butter or margarine and vanilla until just blended.
• On a lightly floured board, roll pastry disks to 1/16" thick.
• Cut into 5 inch circles. Roll scraps of dough and cut again. Line 12-3 inch tart pans with pastry. Divide walnuts equally between tart shells. Pour maple syrup mixture over walnuts. Bake at 425°F for 20-25 minutes, or until pastry is golden and filling is soft set. Let stand 15 minutes befire removing from tart pans.

WALNUT TART

Steps:

• For pastry: Combine flour and sugar in large bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Blend in yolks and vanilla; gather dough into a ball.
• Turn out onto lightly-floured surface.
• Using heel of hand, smear dough a little at a time across surface to blend butter and flour thoroughly.
• Flatten into disk.
• Wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 390F.
• Roll dough out between sheets of wax paper to thickness of 1/8 inch.
• Fit into 11 inch tart pan and trim edges.
• Pierce shell all over with fork.
• Line with foil and fill with pie weights or dry beans.
• Bake until pastry is set, about 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350F.
• Remove pie weights and foil.
• Bake until crust is golden-brown, about 10 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 300F.
• Blend all filling ingredients.
• Pour into crust.
• Bake until filling is set and looks dry, about 35 minutes.
• Cool and decorate with walnut halves.
• This is sublime served warm with a scoop of walnut ice cream melting over top.

WALNUT TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Tear off a piece of foil twice as large as crust. Fold it in half and smear it with butter; lay buttered side onto crust. Weight foil with a pile of dried beans or rice (these can be reused for this purpose), pie weights, or a tight-fitting ovenproof skillet or saucepan - anything that will sit flat on the surface. Bake 12 minutes, then remove foil and continue to bake at 350 degrees, until crust is a beautiful shade of brown, another few minutes. Remove and let cool on a rack while you prepare filling.
• Put sugar in a heavy 6- or 8-inch saucepan or deep skillet with a tablespoon of water and turn heat to medium. Cook, gently shaking pan occasionally, until sugar melts; then cook, stirring occasionally and scraping sides with a heat-proof flexible spatula, until mixture turns golden.
• Turn heat to low, then carefully add butter and cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until butter melts and mixture is uniform. Stir in walnuts and a large pinch of salt if you like, then spread on crust. Refrigerate for about an hour, then sprinkle with a little more salt and serve.

WALNUT CARAMEL TART

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Put the flour in a food processor with the butter and sugar, and mix until it forms fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 1-2 tbsp cold water, and pulse to make a firm dough.
• Have ready a 24cm tart tin. Briefly knead the pastry on a lightly floured surface, then roll out to a round about 5cm larger than your tin. Lift onto the tin with the help of your rolling pin, then press into the corners using your finger. Do not trim the pastry. Fill the pastry case with a round of baking parchment and baking beans. Chill for 10 mins. Blindbake for 10 mins, remove the paper and beans, then bake for 5 mins more.
• To make the filling, put the sugar in a large pan with 3 tbsp cold water. Heat gently, stirring to dissolve the sugar. When the sugar is completely dissolved, increase heat and bubble until the syrup has turned a rich caramel colour. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until it has dissolved, then stir in the cream. Return to the heat and boil hard, stirring until the sauce is thick enough to leave a gap on the base of the pan when you draw your spoon across it. Stir in the walnuts.
• Fill the pastry case with the nut mixture, levelling it with a fork. Return to the oven for 8-10 mins until the filling is bubbling. Cool for 10 mins before removing carefully from the tin. Serve warm or cold.