French Tarte Faves (FTF) No. 4: Tarte aux noix et au caramel

Wow! My last FAVES post was over four months ago!! Well here’s No. 4 in the line up - my caramel nut tarte.

I see these FAVES as a way of doing a deeper dive into some of my favorite bakes. Read/scroll through as you wish. This one includes the nitty gritty details of figuring out ingredient quantities for different sized tartes as well as changing up the nuts you might want to use for your own version. You can even opt for chocolate dough too!

Mind you, I haven’t made this particular FAVE for quite some time. The caramel nut tarte was a staple for me back in our Providence days, particularly in my shop where I sold individual sizes, made full sized versions for special orders/holiday times and even petite ones for yummy treat assortments.

As I searched through my posts and photos, I found this one from back in autumn 2022. I think that’s the last one I made! It’s all gussied up with crème Chantilly and sesame brittle and boy was it good.

An autumn wonder!

Of course I do realize it’s spring, a season when our baking (and eating) thoughts are more likely to turn to citrus and fruity, lighter fare rather than nuts and caramel. But, since Steve requested a caramel nut tarte for his April 25th birthday dessert, what could I do but comply.

On a side note, while in Lyon on our recent France trip, we passed a pastry shop where Steve spied a tarte écureuil in the window. Écureuil is French for squirrel - awww, how clever - a squirrel tart! Get it - nuts, squirrels - hah! When we went in to purchase a small one, Steve asked for a “tart squirrel” and the woman behind the counter laughed and understood right away. Even though the tart was shallower and more meagerly filled than the one I typically make (and not nearly as good I must say), the birthday dessert idea was launched.

Petite versions from my archives

The process is a good one for planning ahead. Three components make up this creation: dough, filling and a mix of lightly toasted nuts all of which can be prepared and stored separately until you’re ready to go. Here’s the recipe PDF including all the components in one document. I’ll go through the steps below.

Since I was making so many different sizes of this tarte back in the day, being little Miss detail, I created a list with the portions of each component I would need for each size plus the number of different sizes that one recipe of filling would fill. Yes, I know what you’re thinking . . . . .

Let’s review the components.

I typically use a favorite pâte sucrée d’amande for this tarte. I can make a batch (or 2 or 3) of dough ahead and refrigerate or freeze it. I can even go so far as to think about what sizes of tarte I might want to make, portion out the necessary dough and have it at the ready (as you’ll see in a bit).

The dough is straight forward to make, either using a mixer or by hand. If I’m doing a single batch, I often just do it by hand using a medium mixing bowl. First cube up 137 g / 9.5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter and set aside as you prepare the other ingredients. You want the butter to remain cool so don’t dilly-dally. You can also do that part ahead, hold the cubed butter in the fridge then take it out 10-15 minutes or so before you want to mix everything.

Weigh out 227 g / 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 85 g / 3 ounces (a generous 3/4 cup) powdered sugar, 28 g / 1/4 cup almond flour and place them in the mixing bowl along with a scant 1/2 teaspoon fine salt.

Have one large egg and a teaspoon vanilla extract ready on the side.

Now work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until you achieve medium fine crumbs. You can still see some butter pieces in the image below. NOTE: if opting to use a mixer, set it on low and let the paddle do the work. I find it takes maybe 4-5 minutes to get to the nice crumbled butter stage.

Add the egg and vanilla, toss it up with the fork to get the mix started. I then switch to my fingers and a bowl scraper to toss and smear the mixture until it comes together in the bowl. If you’re making one full size tarte, divide the dough in two and wrap one half to freeze for later. Chill the other half for a good couple of hours or overnight.

I planned a small version for the birthday dessert - on the right below is a 140 mm (~5.5”) ring and the 110 g of dough needed to line it. The other two I’ll freeze for the next round.

Remember - full recipe here!

The day you wish to proceed, make the caramel/butterscotch filling. NOTE: you can make this a couple of days ahead, keep it refrigerated then gently warm it for use.

Mise for caramel filling

Place 140 g / 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, 200 g / 1 cup dark brown sugar, 110 g / 1/3 cup honey and 50 g / 1/4 cup granulated cane sugar in a medium saucepan. Melt on low then increase the heat, bring to a boil and simmer a couple of minutes.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble!

Take the pan off the heat and blend in one tablespoon vanilla and 45 ml / 3 tablespoons heavy cream. Careful - it’s hot! Transfer to a stainless bowl and set aside until you’re ready to assemble/bake.

For the nuts, choose your favorites. I like a 5-nut mixture but you can use only pecans for example or create your own mixtures. For a full size 9” tarte I use about 4 cups of nuts. A cup of nuts generally weighs anywhere from 4 - 5 ounces depending on their size, but don’t get hung up on weights here - precision isn’t that important. Simple measures will do the trick.

Here’s my usual mixture: 1.5 cups / ~210 g whole natural almonds; 1.5 cups / ~170 g walnut halves and pieces; 1/2 cup / ~66 g hazelnuts, 1/4 cup / ~32 g pecans, 1/4 cup / ~32 g pistachios. Depending on the size of the tarte you’re making, you might coarsely chop the nuts for smaller sized tartes so they tuck into the space better.

A bit more about nuts: I generally use raw nuts and lightly toast them before use to bring out their flavor. Since some nuts tend to burn faster than others, I toast almonds and walnuts at 325º - 350ºF about 10 minutes then decrease to 300º - 325ºF for pecans, hazelnuts and pistachios for 8-10 minutes. Back during my Rhode Island shop days, I would toast up a whole bunch of nuts and keep them in a covered container, using them as needed over time. Once nuts are toasted, their shelf life is longer than when raw. If I’ve opened bags of raw nuts and haven’t toasted them, I then freeze them until I need them for their intended purpose. I hope that makes sense!

Lately I’ve been purchasing almonds, walnuts and pecans at Costco for a very good price. I tend to use less of hazelnuts and pistachios so I buy smaller bags of those at Trader Joe’s. If TJ’s doesn’t have raw nuts in stock, on occasion I buy their unsalted, dry roasted versions. Just sayin’.

We’ve talked about dough, caramel filling and nuts - now let’s do this. When you’re ready to actually make your tarte, roll the dough out to about 4 mm thick and line your chosen ring (s). Place the lined ring on a parchment lined sheet pan, prick the bottom all over with a fork and place it in the freezer while you heat the oven to 350ºF.

One example of a lined tarte ring

When the oven is ready, remove the lined ring/sheet pan from the freezer, line the ring with parchment paper and fill with dried beans or ceramic weights.

Lined and weighted

Bake for 15 minutes with weights, remove from the oven and lift the parchment and weights out. The crust should be starting to set but won’t be fully baked yet. The bottom will still appear “doughy”.

Partially baked after weights removed

Place back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the dough is set, golden and appears dry (see below). Cool on a wire grid.

Measure out your chosen nuts and portion out the caramel filling. Below are the components for the small tarte I made for the birthday boy. For this size I use 1/3 cup caramel and 2/3 cup nuts. You should be able to appreciate the blind baked crust being set, dry and lightly browned.

Blend the caramel into the nuts and fill the tarte shell evenly.

Ready for the oven

Here’s the age old reminder - every oven is different. Depending on the size of the tarte, the bake time will vary. I look for the caramel to become bubbly and call it a day. This may take about 20 minutes and up for larger tartes. The main thing is just keep checking!

Just out of the oven, filling bubbly

Let cool on a wire rack. The bubbly-ness will subside as it cools. Gently lift the ring off after the first 10 minutes or so, then cool completely.

I did a followup baking session recently to use up the dough/nuts/caramel that I had already prepared. I made three different sizes (180 mm / 7”; 160 cm / 6.3” and 120 cm / 4.7”) - with an eye to giving the two larger ones to a couple of our neighbors who I felt needed/deserved them. The smallest one I saved for us. They were the perfect sizes to use up the ingredients I had. Love it!

Ready for filling

All baked up

As if you haven’t had enough already - another delicious way to use up ingredients is to fill a blind baked shell about 2/3 full with the caramel/nut mixture (eyeball it), bake that and cool completely. Then pour a 1:1 dark chocolate ganache over it and let cool until set. You can’t beat it. Oh my.

For a large tarte I’d make the ganache somewhere in the realm of 100-150 ml cream and 100-150 g chocolate which should be plenty. You can eyeball how much you want to pour over the nut filling, even leaving some nuts peeking out. And if you have extra? Fridge the leftovers and use later as desired (macaron filling anyone?)

Steve and I enjoyed his birthday version with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream over a petite slice (remember, everything in moderation). So good. This tarte keeps well over 2-3 days, covered at room temp.

Nothing fancy but deelish!

We are now enjoying the most beautiful sight from our north facing window.

Flowering crabapple

Up close and personal

Take care until next time.

Banana rye walnut chocolate chunk cakes

I learned something about bananas some years back. Once they’re ripe and you’re not ready to eat them right then and there, peel ’em, chunk them up and freeze them! You can then use them in smoothies, cakes or quick breads where they lend a special creaminess to the batter. Yum.

This recipe calls for 4 medium bananas which I figured came to about 480 g of banana mash (~120 g per banana). I’m sure you can give or take the amount without negatively affecting the final result so don’t fuss too much as to the exact quantity of said banana.

This is my take on banana rye bread from Brontë Aurell’s book “Brontë at Home - baking from the Scandi Kitchen”. I’ve made these babies a bunch of times and realized that I’ve never written about them. I’ve done variations subbing maple sugar (thanks sister Joyce!) for some of the brown sugar, subbing ground oats and/or whole wheat pastry flour for some of the all purpose flour, adding in chopped toasted nuts like hazelnuts or walnuts, adding chocolate chunks and topping with a nutty streusel. So moist. All good.

Here’s the recipe (including some of the variations I’ve made) and my mise for this version in the image below. It’s a pretty straight forward cake batter - mashed banana, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla in a separate bowl; dry ingredients in another bowl; cream butter/sugar, add egg then add wet/dry alternating. Basic right?

In this case I’m also adding 170 g / 6 ounces chopped chocolate to the batter and topping with chopped walnuts and raw sugar for a bit of crunch.

You can bake these cakes in buttered/floured muffin tins but I prefer (and love) my Silikomart silicone flexi-molds - so many different shapes and sizes. This time I’m using the 8-well SF028, rather like a standard muffin size. The recipe yield is about 20 cakes using that particular mold. I also often use the 11-well SF022 which is a tad larger than a standard mini-muffin pan - I get about 33 cakes with that mold. NOTE - I have several of each mold.

I place the molds on a wire grid on a half sheet pan - that allows for better air circulation and more even baking.

You can find a large selection of Silikomart molds at bakedeco.com. By the way - I have no affiliate links with any companies - I simply like sharing the things I find useful and fun in the baking kitchen!

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Fill molds about 3/4 full. Sprinkle chopped walnuts and raw sugar on top.

Bake 20 minutes or so - always check about half way through. Your oven may take longer than mine. You want the center to feel set and just the barest hint of a moist crumb on a tester.

Let them rest about 10 minutes then gently turn them out onto a wire cooling rack. If you can’t wait, try one a bit warm when the chocolate will still be gooey, otherwise cool to room temp and enjoy.

These freeze well too. Even better!

Let me add my official Happy New Year to all of you. Time for new projects and, as always, staying active and keeping our collective chins up. OK.

Honeyed pear/Cashel blue/walnut puffs

Here’s a wonderful way to use puff pastry. Make vol au vent (puff pastry cases) in desired shapes and create your own sweet and/or savory fillings for your supper buffet or dessert table. While making your own puff pastry is a rewarding experience, the good news is you don’t have to! All butter puff pastry (Dufour is a well known brand) is available in the frozen food sections at many local supermarkets, allowing you to take one task off your holiday prep to-do list.

Before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us, so start planning now.

This version of vol au vent (also referred to as feuilletée) marries sweet and savory tastes and, since I’m still on the trail of baking with cheese projects, I chose Irish Cashel blue cheese from The Cheese Lady as a lovely accompaniment to pears, walnuts and honey.

If you happen to have a stash of different shaped cutters, choose your favorite shapes (I like ovals, squares, hearts and fluted rounds) and use cutters that are two sizes apart. For each puff you’ll cut two shapes with the larger of the two and then cut the center out of one of them with the smaller. Once you do it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Here’s a heart version which should help you visualize the process. Brush a little water along the edge of the solid shape then lay the cut out on top of it. Just press gently to stick them together.

The top layer serves as a border for the puffs. You can save the cut out shapes and bake them along side - they make cute “hats” on your finished creation or you can just eat them plain.

These bake at 400ºF for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool a bit, push down the center layers that have puffed up to give yourself room for the chosen filling.

NOTE: Another plan-ahead perk is you can bake your puffs a week or so ahead and freeze them. When you’re ready to start your filling project, take them out of the freezer, place them on a parchment lined sheet pan and heat the oven to 325ºF. Pop them into the heated oven for 5-10 minutes to crisp them up then set on a cooling rack while you prepare your fillings.

I’ve created these delights with poached Bosc pears on hand in the fridge, but another approach is to roast pear slices drizzled with honey for the pear portion of the program.

Peel, core and slice the pears, drizzle them with honey and roast them in a 375ºF convection oven for 10-20 minutes. Stir them up a bit half way through. You want them turning golden but still holding their shape. Once the pears have cooled you can store them in a covered container in the fridge for several days.

When you’re ready to fill your puffs, cube the pears to allow them to fit in nicely. Have some toasted walnuts, crumbled up Cashel blue and honey at the ready. First put a bit of crumbled cheese in the bottom. (Note the twisted corner diamond shapes below - they’re great although difficult to explain on paper - maybe some day I’ll have a video to post to show how they’re done!)

Then tuck in the pears (don’t be afraid to mound them up!) and top with a sprinkle of walnuts, more cheese and a drizzle of honey.

Then pop them back into the oven to melt the cheese a bit and warm things up. They can be served warm or at room temp and are delicious as an appetizer or a dessert, particularly if you’re doing a broader cheese board for the end of your meal.

Use your imagination and fill your puffs with anything savory or sweet. Crab or chicken salad, roasted root veggies with caramelized onion, lemon curd and fresh berries, whipped chocolate ganache and candied nuts. The sky’s the limit.

Only you can decide!

Happy baking and here’s to the holidays!! More on that coming your way.

Nutty apricot tea cakes

Some of you may realize by now that I'm always reading baking and pastry books and lately have been thinking of ways to increase my use of nuts, seeds and whole grains in my baking endeavors. Often my projects come about as a way of using up ingredients I happen to have in my fridge or cupboard. What's not to like about that, eh?

This time I was intent on some apricot purée that's been in my freezer for a few months - time to make something tasty! And, to top it off, I had some buttermilk in the fridge that simply HAD to go into something hearty, healthy and delicious.

This is my take on a pretty basic tea cake recipe that turns out deliciously moist with a bit of crunch from nuts and pumpkin seeds. It actually reminds me of both date nut and Boston brown bread that we used to eat when we were kids - hard to describe the fruity side of those, but if you've eaten those particular goodies, you know what I'm talkin 'bout.

For this project I used both whole wheat pastry and all purpose flours, along with some of my favorite spices, coriander and ginger, plus a dash of cinnamon. I generally tone down or don't use cinnamon at all in my baking, since the Steve-meister holds an odd aversion to that particular spice.

It's a straight forward cake process - whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars, add the fruit puree, add the eggs, then alternate the addition of the dry ingredients and buttermilk. Pretty basic. With this one, some of the chopped walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds are added to the dry ingredients and a small portion are set aside for garnish before baking.

Two of my favorite straight-sided Silikomart flexi-molds were given the honor for the baking process - one smaller/taller and one wider/shorter - both muffin style and shapes I find just so right for tea cakes.

Ready for the oven

All baked up

These babies baked up moist and dense from the presence of the apricot purée, and the nuts and pumpkin seeds added just the right crunch.

Here's the recipe PDF as well as outlined below. This makes two 9"x5" loaves or many small cakes, depending on the size mold you choose.

• Approximately 45 g (1/2 cup) each walnuts and pecans (or choose your own nuts)

• 85 g (scant 3/4 cup) pumpkin seeds

• 290 g (2 1/4 cup) all purpose flour

• 150 g (1 1/4 cup) whole wheat pastry flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• several fresh grates of nutmeg (you decide - I prefer my nutmeg on the subtle side)

• a pinch of cinnamon (or more to your taste)

• 227 g (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 185 g (scant well packed cup) brown sugar (I used light but try dark if you'd prefer)

• 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar

• Approximately 350 g (~12 ounces) apricot puree (or try pear or pumpkin!)

• 4 large eggs, room temperature

• 180 ml (3/4 cup) buttermilk, room temperature

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Spread walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds on a sheet pan. Toast for about 10 minutes until fragrant. Once cooled, do a medium-fine chop.
3. Reduce the oven to 325ºF. Have your silicone molds at the ready (no buttering necessary), or, if using two 9"x5" loaf pans, butter and flour them.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the two flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.  Stir in the chopped nuts and seeds but reserve a few tablespoons for garnish.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugars and mix on medium high until will blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Add apricot purée and mix for a couple of minutes until incorporated. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing each until blended before adding the next.
7. Now add the flour/spice mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined and finish off by hand with a spatula.
8. Pour the batter into your chosen molds or pans, smooth tops, sprinkle reserved nuts/seeds on top and pop into the oven.
9. Bake small cakes around 20 minutes - remember - it's your job to keep an eye on things! You're looking for a tester inserted in the center to come out clean. Large loaves bake 50-60 minutes.
10. Let your cakes cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before unmolding, then let cool completely before storing in an airtight container. These will keep at room temp for several days, or wrap and freeze them for up to two months.

Enjoy!