Brown Butter, Whisky, Walnut Tart
This is a special tart, with an amazingly delicate pastry and a filling that is rich from the brown butter with undertones of that whisky.
It’s a tart that once you make, will soon be added to your family recipe book.
It’s a keeper.
I’ve eaten this tart with cream or ice cream and my favourite ice cream to make is a good vanilla with great big pieces of toasted walnuts that i’ve candied .
No, not an over load of walnuts, together they make the perfect pairing, but a really good dollop or two of good vanilla ice cream will work great to.
I’ve eaten this tart the same day as it was cooked, the day after and even three days after, and no matter when I’ve stuffed it in my mouth, it stays as good.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Serve at room temperature.
What You Need
Pastry
175g Plain Flour
90g Butter – Chilled – See Tip Box
50g Icing Sugar
1 Large Egg Yolk
1 tbsp Cold Water
Prepare the tin - see ‘How To’
Filling
300g Walnut Halves
150g Golden Syrup
120g Butter
100ml Double Cream
75g Dark Brown Sugar
75g Light Brown Sugar
5 Egg Yolks from Large Eggs
2 tbsp Whisky
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Malden Sea Salt
Whipped egg yolks
How It’s Done
Pastry
Heat the oven to 180c
Place the flour and icing sugar into a food processor and give it a whizz to mix up
Cut the chilled butter into rough pieces, and while the processor is running, slowly feed the pieces of butter through the top.
Let the machine run until the contents resembles bread crumbs.
Still with the machine running, add the cold water through the top and let the machine run until the dough comes together into a very soft dough.
Once the pastry is ready, tip it out onto a clean surface and without over handling the pastry, bring it quickly together into a flat disk, wrap in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for ten minutes.
Let the pastry rest in the fridge
While the pastry is resting, prepare the walnuts.
Place the walnut halves, and in a single layer, put on to an oven tray and put them into the hot oven to cook for 7 minutes.
Remove the toasted walnuts from the oven and set the tray aside until they go cold.
walnuts, toasted from the oven.
Prepare the tin
Find a loose bottomed 23cm and rub the inside with butter making sure to get into all of those dents.
Put a little flour into the buttered tin, and move it around the inside of the tin so everywhere is coated in a thin layer of the flour. Tap out the excess flour.
Pull out a sheet of non-stick baking parchment, and draw around the bottom of the tin.
Cut out the circle and place it in the bottom of the floured tin.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and using extra flour for the work bench, roll out the pastry so that it is about 2 inch larger than the pastry case – Be really careful not to overhandle the pastry – See Tip Box
Very gently, lay the pastry into the prepared tin and with gentle fingers, push it into the curves of the edges.
Leave the pastry with around 2 inches of overhang.
Cut out a piece of non-stick baking parchment that is bigger than the tart case and scrunch it up in your hand.
Open the paper out, and lay it inside the tart case, being very gently with the pastry
Pour in some baking beads and put it in the oven to bake for 12 minutes.
After this time, remove the paper and the beads, and put it back in to the oven to bake for around approximately another 7-10 minutes – The bottom of the pastry should be dry to the touch and the pastry should be a very light golden.
Once the case is ready, take it out of the oven and set it aside until needed
Put an oven tray in the oven to heat up while you make the filling.
A layer of the toasted walnuts on the pastry case.
Filling
Time to make the brown butter.
Put the butter Into a saucepan and on a low to medium heat, let it heat up until melted.
Let the butter keep bubbling away, making sure to swirl all of the time, until it changes colour and goes brown and smell a nutty.
Don’t walk away from it, it can go from pale to burnt in an instant.
Don’t take your eyes off that butter.
Once it has turned into burnt butter, take it off the heat and add the golden syrup, sugar, whisky, and double cream, vanilla and cinnamon.
Give it a really good stir, out it back onto a low heat and constantly stir until the sugar has melted.
Once the sugar has melted, take it ff the heat and let it come to room temperature.
Once the sugar has dissolved, take it away oven the heat and bring to room temperature.
Place the egg yolks into the bowl of an electric mixer and on a medium speed, let it beat until the yolks are at least tripled in size, have become light in colour and are fluffy.
Once this happens, add the room temperature butter mixture to the eggs and fold it in very gently.
Set it aside until needed.
Fold the beaten egg into the room temperature brown butter mixture
Lay the toasted walnuts in a single layer on the bottom of the pastry case.
Pour the butter and egg mixture on the top, being very careful not to move the layer of walnuts around.
Very carefully, put the tart in the hot oven, sitting it in top of the hot baking tray and let it bake fir around 30 minutes.
Pour the filling gently over the walnuts
There should still be a small wobble in the centre of the tart when cooked.
Remove the tray from the oven, and let the tart cool completely before taking out of the tin, remember there is a sheet of parchment on the bottom of the tart that needs to be taken off.
Keep in the fridge but serve at room temperature.
Deep caramelised pastry with that sweet middle
Tip Box
Butter – Salted or not – I always use salted butter when cooking or baking, but if you’re a no salted butter person, add a pinch of salt.
Pastry – 1) Don’t over handle – This pastry is really delicate and as with every pastry, over handling it will just make it tough to eat and very dry.
I forgot to take off the parchment from thee bottom - just a heads up!
