This is a guest post from Dr. Jean Layton, GFDoctor to keep things here interesting while I await the arrival of my kitchen utensils in my new apartment.
It is still too early for local fruit where I live up in Washington. Our strawberries are still occasional tiny green nubs surrounded by brilliant white blossoms. The gooseberries are green pea sized not anything close to beautiful big grape sized fruits that add so much to my summer tarts.
Tarts are my favorite quick to bake dessert when I’ve invited friends over, crispy crust with sweet centers.
This tart goes together without much fuss.
The crust is stirred together, then pressed in place, no need to roll.
It bakes for 15 minutes with the hazelnuts from the filling inside, so no pie weights are needed. Best of all, the caramel topping melds and cooks in the same amount of time. Which means that the hardest part of enjoying this tart is the wait for it to cool.
Using hazelnut flour in combination with sweet rice flour gives a tender, short crust. If you need to avoid dairy, the crust can be made with coconut oil instead.
- Crust
- 1 cup hazelnut flour (Bob’s Red Mill makes a great one)
- 1 cup sweet rice flour
- Pinch of salt
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter- cut into small bits.
- 2 cups whole hazelnuts
- Caramel
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Cinnamon Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees(180 C or gas mark 4)
- Stir together till one color: flours, salt and sugar.
- Combine the flour mixture and the butter.
- Flatten the butter bits between your fingers into the flour till well combined
- Divide into 4 portions
- Place each amount into a tart pan
- Press and smooth the mixture into the pan, making sure to get the crumbs to go up the sides.
- Evenly divide the hazelnuts amongst the tart crusts, or spread them out over the bottom of one large crust.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Combine the sugar, honey, water and salt in a 2 quart saucepan. Don’t substitute a smaller pan, when the cream is added later, it bubbles up and can overflow a smaller one.
- Heat the sugar mixture over medium high heat till the sugar melts, stirring continuously.
- Using a wet pastry brush, wipe the sides of the pan of all sugar crystals are gone.
- Continue to cook till dark brown, swirling the pan every few seconds to make the color even.
- Once the cooked sugar is the color of dark brown sugar, add the cream all at once and from the side.
- The mixture and extremely hot steam will bubble up.
- Remove from heat, drop in the butter and stir.
- Remove the tarts from the oven.
- Top each one with caramel, pouring over each nut first then adding a bit to make it about half full.
- Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Beat cream till soft peaks form
- Beat in sour cream, organic cane sugar, cinnamon and salt till firm peaks form.
- Serve each tart with a large dollop of Cinnamon Whipped Cream on the side.
One comment