Recipes
Claire Saffitz's Salty Nut Tart With Rosemary
Makes 12 servings
This luxe tart is one of those rare desserts whose looks and flavor belie its ease. The oven does all the work! The filling is a mixture of toasted pine nuts and walnuts stirred into a rosemary-spiked honey syrup that caramelizes as it bakes inside the tart crust—no stovetop caramel cooking required. The final tart is rich (thanks to the fatty pine nuts) and pleasingly sweet-savory. During the testing process it was a favorite among my family, all of whom thought it was delicious, and also a favorite of mine for how fancy yet unfussy it presents. Since caramel, nuts, and rosemary are all great accompaniments to cheese, this tart really shines when served with an aged cheddar, Comté, or a mild creamy blue.
Image Credits
Photo by Alex Lau
ingredients
- 1 cup pine nuts (5 ounces/143 grams)
- 1 cup walnuts (4 ounces/113 grams), coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup honey (3 ounces/85 grams)
- ¼ cup sugar (1.8 ounces/50 grams)
- ¼ cup heavy cream (2 ounces/57 grams)
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil (2 ounces/57 grams)
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup (1.4 ounces/40 grams)
- ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- Sweet Tart Dough (recipe below), parbaked in a 9-inch removable-bottom tart pan and cooled
- ¼ teaspoon flaky salt, for serving
Method
- Preheat the oven and toast the nuts: Arrange an oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Scatter the pine nuts and chopped walnuts on a small rimmed baking sheet and toast, shaking halfway through, until they’re golden brown and fragrant, 6 to 9 minutes. After 5 minutes keep a watchful eye since pine nuts burn easily! Remove them from the oven and set the nuts aside to cool. (Leave the oven on.)
- Cook the filling: In a small saucepan, combine the honey, sugar, heavy cream, olive oil, and corn syrup and cook over medium-low heat, stirring gently with a heatproof spatula to dissolve the sugar. Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a rapid simmer. Cook the mixture without stirring, swirling the pan often, until it has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. This is an approximate end point—the idea is to cook off some moisture and make sure all the ingredients are well combined, not to cook it until it’s caramel. The mixture will still be quite liquid. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the kosher salt, vanilla, and ¼ teaspoon of the rosemary. Add the toasted nuts and stir well to combine. Set aside.
- Fill the tart and bake: Place the cooled, parbaked tart crust on a large foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Scrape the filling mixture into the tart, distributing all the nuts across the bottom so the liquid pools evenly around them. Bake until the filling around the nuts is bubbling and the surface is deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and set the tart aside to cool slightly.
- Top with rosemary salt: While the tart is still warm, in a small bowl, combine the flaky salt and remaining ¼ teaspoon rosemary and rub between your fingertips for a few seconds to release the fragrant oils. Sprinkle the mixture over the tart and let the tart cool completely (it will set as it cools).
- Serve: Pop the tart out of the ring. Slide a thin metal spatula between the tart base and the bottom of the tart to loosen it, then carefully slide it onto a serving plate and cut into wedges.
- The tart, covered and stored at room temperature, will keep up to 4 days but is best served on the first or second day while the crust is still snappy. Make sure the tart is tightly wrapped to prevent the caramel from pulling moisture from the air and turning sticky (especially in humid weather)
- Pine nuts are pricey, so feel free to substitute another nut, such as blanched almonds in their place. If you have the budget, though, and you can find them, I recommend Italian pine nuts, which are longer, more cylindrical, and generally tastier than the more ubiquitous, triangular Chinese pine nuts. Pine nuts are very high in fat and go rancid quickly, so keep them fresh in an airtight container in the freezer.
- Double-check that your parbaked tart crust has no cracks, as the liquid filling will seep through even small ones. If you don’t have any tart dough available for patching, mix together a small amount of flour and water to make a soft dough and use that like spackle to seal any cracks (no need to bake the crust again before filling).
DO AHEAD
notes
Divider
Sweet Tart Dough
Makes one 9- or 10-inch tartingredients
⅓ cup almond flour (1.4 ounces/40 grams)1 cup all-purpose flour (4.6 ounces/130 grams), plus more for hands
¼ cup powdered sugar (1 ounce/ 30 grams)
½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 stick Kerrygold Unsalted Pure Irish Butter (4 ounces/ 113 grams), cut into ½-inch pieces, chilled
1 large egg yolk (0.6 ounces/ 16 grams)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
method
Preheat the oven and toast the almond flour: Arrange an oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the almond flour in an even layer on a small rimmed baking sheet and bake, stirring with a heatproof spatula once or twice, until the almond flour is fragrant and golden brown, 6 to 9 minutes. Transfer the almond flour to the bowl of a food processor and let cool. (Turn the oven off.) Make the dough: Add the all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, and salt to the food processor, then pulse several times to combine. Add the butter and process in long pulses until the pieces of butter are no larger than a pea, about 10 pulses. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk, vanilla, and 4 teaspoons cold water with a fork until smooth. Remove the food processor lid and drizzle all of the yolk mixture evenly over the flour mixture (use a flexible spatula to scrape out every last drop). Replace the lid and process in long pulses until a ball of dough forms around the blade and no floury spots remain, about 10 pulses. Scrape the dough out of the food processor and onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Pat the dough into a ½-inch-thick disk, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days. Press the dough into the pan: Unwrap the chilled dough and use a knife or bench scraper to cut it in half, then cut one half into 6 strips. Roll the strips beneath your palms on the work surface to form ropes that are about ½ inch thick, then arrange the ropes around the inside perimeter of the tart or spring form pan, pressing into place and overlapping slightly so there are no gaps. Using a lightly floured, straight-sided 1-cup dry measure, press the dough against the sides in an even thickness all the way around. If using a tart pan, press until the dough extends slightly above the edge of the pan. Using lightly floured hands, press the other half of the dough into and across the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Where the bottom meets the sides, smooth and press the dough together to seal. For an extra-smooth surface or if you notice any unevenness, use the floured measuring cup to flatten the bottom.Chill the crust: Freeze the lined pan until the dough is completely hardened, 15 to 20 minutes. Preheat the oven: While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. Smooth the edge and line with foil: Remove the pan from the freezer. If using a tart pan, hold a paring knife parallel to the work surface and slice horizontally along the rim of the pan, removing excess dough and creating a smooth edge flush with the top of the pan. Reserve the scraps of raw dough to patch any cracks in the crust after baking. If using a springform pan, you can leave the edge unfinished or trim around it with a paring knife to create a smooth edge with an even height. Place the pan on a rimmed baking sheet and prick the bottom all over with the tines of a fork. Press a layer of foil directly onto the surface of the dough and up the sides, especially working it into the space where the bottom and sides meet (this will help prevent the dough from slumping as it bakes—no dried beans or pie weights needed—a tip I picked up from pastry legend Lindsey Shere). Bake the foil-lined crust: Bake the tart crust until the edge is golden brown (peek under the foil to check), 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and carefully peel off the foil. To par- or fully bake the crust: Return the pan to the oven and bake until the crust is golden all over, another 15 to 20 minutes for a parbaked crust, or until deep golden brown around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes longer, for a fully baked crust. Set the crust aside to cool. Patch any cracks and cool: Use the reserved dough scraps to patch any cracks. Let cool completely.VARIATION
Nut-Free Tart Dough: Replace the almond flour with ¼ cup all-purpose flour (1.2 ounces/30 grams) and skip the toasting step.DO AHEAD
The tart dough, wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated, will keep up to 3 days or can be frozen for up to 2 months (place in a resealable plastic bag before freezing). Let the frozen dough thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using. The parbaked or fully baked crust, covered and stored at room temperature, will keep for 1 day.notes
Replace the almond flour with an equal weight of whole roasted almonds, if that’s what you have. Add the whole almonds to the food processor along with the flour, sugar, and salt and pulse until the nuts are very finely ground, then proceed with the recipe as written. Use cold butter straight from the fridge, otherwise the dough won’t form a ball around the blade. Cold butter also helps the dough chill down faster in the refrigerator. Don’t try to roll out this dough with a rolling pin into a round to line the pan. It’s a fragile, brittle dough (thanks to the lack of gluten development), so pressing it in is the best option.Links
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| Description | Recipe excerpted from Dessert Person. Copyright © 2020 by Claire Saffitz. Photographs copyright © 2020 by Alex Lau. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House |
