Walnut Tart

Walnuts are not my favourite nuts. Cashews and pistachio, I love. I was cleaning my cupboard yesterday and I found a semi-big bag of walnuts which I can't remember buying. Have you done that? Bought something, stored it and then found it months later and can't remember how it got there in the first place.

I normally stay away from making pastry, but this is actually very easy to do and delicious. The pastry/biscuit-like base was buttery, crumbly and nutty. And the caramel-y, sticky, walnut-y topping is actually rather tasty too. So, here's the recipe:

Walnut Tart
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud
Serves 6

For the pastry
150 g butter
200 g plain flour
100 g sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 egg

For the filling
150 g sugar
50 g lightly salted butter
100 ml pouring (whipping) cream
200 g walnuts

For the pastry, dice the butter and let it soften at room temperature. Combine the flour, sugar and ground almonds, add the butter and work the pastry together with the palm of your hand, add the egg and repeat the process. Wrap the pastry in cling and chill for an hour. The chilled pastry will be easier to handle, since the butter will have become more solid.

Preheat the oven to 180 C. When pastry is nice and chilled, roll into a thin circle (24 cm diameter) on a piece of baking paper, bake for about 20 minutes - it should be a good golden brown.

To make the filling, put the sugar in heavy saucepan with 1 tablespoon of water until the caramel is golden brown and translucent. At that point, add the butter and cream and cook for a further couple minutes so that the mixture becomes smooth, add the walnuts. Pour the mixture onto the tart base. Allow to cool, then serve.

My new friend, Ann at Apples and Twinkies recently presented me with a Stylish Blogger Award. At her blog, Ann shares her passion for food. She loves every aspect of it, shopping for food, watching food programmes, reading about food and most importantly I think: eating. There are plenty of delicious family-style recipes you can find at her blog.

One of the rules when accepting Stylish Blogger Award is I must tell you, 7 things about myself, and they are:

1. I like a bit of lumps in my mashed potatoes. I don't why I'm telling you this, but it's one of the first things that came up in my head.
2. I used to dislike mustard, and now it's my 'I-cannot-live-without' condiments. I have all kinds of mustards in my fridge and cupboard, American yellow, Dijon, whole-grain, English and brown.
3. I love Wall-E and I start to collect Toy Story figures. I am a child.
4. I am punctual. I don't like people waiting for me and I don't like waiting either.
5. I organised my clothes by colours and I also have a drawer for miscellaneous items (clothings with multiple colours or patterns). 
6. At the gym, I secretly try to outrun the people around me. 
7. I have a dog, Molly who lives with my parents. I miss her.

Molly....

Thank you again Ann for the award. I am well-flattered. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone.