Nutty Tartelettes - Gateau au Noix

Gateau au Noix is a traditional French nut tart. I made these nutty tartelettes on Sunday night for 2 close friends who came to meet me for lunch at my workplace on Monday. Both of them love nuts.

The recipe came from The Australian Women's Weekly - Home Baked which I picked up from the Library. It yields four small (10-cm) tarts. As neither me nor my family like nuts, I did not intend to make extra for us. As I used smaller tart tins (8-cm), I got an extra tart for me to do taste testing. And to my surprise, it tasted delightfully nice. The nuts are crunchy and have the perfect-toasted taste. The maple syrup fillings are not as sweet as I was worried of initially. The Hubby and the 2 girls also took a bite each. And all of them also agreed that it tasted good. My elder girl who initially "warned" me not to bake extra for her (as she is averse to walnut), even whatapps me these messages - “Nut Tart = AWESOMENESS” “Superyummy” “Awesomely Awesome”, “To put it simply” I WANT MORE!!”  This is my girl, the drama-queen. :)

I will make the tarts again soon but will definitely reduce the quantity of maple syrup and add in more nuts. The original filling has too much liquid and not enough nuts.

Gateau au Noix (Nut Tart with maple syrup)

Ingredients

For the tart shells:

• 185g plain flour
• 55g icing sugar (I reduced to 40g)
• 30g ground almond
• 125g chilled butter, chopped
• 1 egg yolk

For the filling:

• 130g of assorted nuts, toasted*
• 2 tbsp brown sugar (I reduced to 1 tbsp)*
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 40g butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten lightly
• 3/4 cup (180ml) maple syrup (I reduced to slightly less than ½ a cup)*

* I used pecans, walnuts, almonds and cut them into smaller bit size pieces before toasting them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 120 degree C.  Or you can simply place the nuts in a plastic bag and crush them with rolling pin before/after toasting them. I will increase the quantity of nuts to 150g and reduce the maple syrup to 1/4 cup the next time when I make them. I think there is no harm to totally omit the brown sugar in the filling since the nuts will already will fully soaped with maple syrup.

 

Methods

1. Place flour, icing sugar, ground almonds and butter in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, mixed them into bread-crumb alike mixture (or you can use a food processor for this step).
2. Add egg yolk, continue to mix them with the pastry cutter until all ingredients just come together. Knead dough on lightly floured surface. Wrap in cling film, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Divide pastry dough into 4 parts. Roll each pieces between 2 sheets of baking paper / cling wraps, into flat disc, large enough to line into a 10-cm round loose-base tart tin. Press pastry into the sides, trim edges. Repeat for the next 3 pieces. Cover, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, combine all filling ingredients and mix well. Set aside for later use.
5. Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Place tart shells on oven tray. Line each shells with baking paper, fill with dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove paper and beans/rice. Baked, uncovered, for further 7 minutes or until tart shells are browned lightly.
7. Reduce oven temperature to 160 degree C.
8. Divide filling among the baked tart shells. Baked 25 minutes or until set (when the centre of the tart puffed up).