This week, I realised that we have lots of bags of nuts coming to their use by date. I think we were given most of them as Christmas presents last year – and, more than likely, we’ll be receiving even more in a few weeks time.
I needed to use them pronto and I’d seen a nut-filled Nigella recipe a week ago that looked tasty. She calls it pecan-plus pie; an Anglicised version of the American pecan pie. I didn’t have any pecans in my nut hoard, so I’ve rechristened mine, nutty treacle tart.
I wasn’t too sure about the pastry case when I was making it; plain flour, vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. It looked very oily when the dough came together and was being pressed into the flan dish. I needn’t have worried though, it turned out perfectly fine – crumbly and biscuity.
The treacle sauce is sweet and unctuous but not sickly. One thing I’d do if making this nutty treacle tart again, however, is roughly chop the larger nuts. The Brazils were a bit large when trying to cut the tart into slices and also when spooning bits into my mouth!
Nigella’s instructions are to bake the tart for 40 minutes at 180ºC. After spending that length of time in the oven, my tart was still quite liquid and (thanks to my clear glass flan dish) I could see the pastry still had a ‘soggy bottom’. I’d suggest upping the oven temperature a bit or cooking it for a little longer… or both; just keep checking on in it as it bakes.
Serve it (I prefer it cold) with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraîche.
Click here to pin the recipe to Pinterest
- 225g/8oz plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 125g/oz vegetable oil
- 60ml/2fl oz full fat milk
- 150g/5¼oz golden syrup
- 100g/3½oz soft butter
- 200g/7oz soft light brown sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 350g/12⅓oz mixed nuts
- 3 large eggs
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350ºF/gas mark 4
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, oil and milk to form a rough dough
- Tip it out into a 25cm /10" diameter flan dish, and press the dough evenly into the base and up the
- sides of the dish, slightly coming up over the top if possible. Put it into the freezer
- Melt the golden syrup, butter and brown sugar over a lowish heat in a saucepan
- Add the vanilla, stir, then take off the heat and allow it to stand and cool for 10 minutes
- Remove the pastry-lined flan dish from the freezer, and arrange the mixed nuts on it
- Whisk the eggs into the slightly cooled syrup until it looks like a caramel mixture, then pour it over the nuts
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the filling has set and the pastry is golden brown
- Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving