Sticky Pecan and Hazelnut Tart
This gluten free, fructose free, casein and lactose free beauty is an adaptation of that classic, uber sweet sticky pecan tart that we’ve all surely enjoyed in the past? Being gluten free isn’t an affliction and there’s no way we’re missing out on the smell of pastry in an oven or the caramelisation of nuts bubbling away in a tart like this. No siree!
Ingredients
- 170 g pecan nuts (1 cup)
- 120 g hazelnuts (1½ cups)
- 6 whole egg yolks
- 120 g coconut oil -or ghee or butter if not intolerant
- 100 g coconut cream
- 170 g rice malt syrup (1 cup) or honey or maple syrup
- Pinch ground cloves
- Pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the Pastry
- 120 g tapioca flour (1¼ cup)
- 30 g almond meal (⅓ cup)
- 20 g coconut flour (2 heaped tsp)
- 45g g buckwheat flour (½ cup) plus a little more for dusting your hands when pressing out the pastry into the tart shell
- 140g butter (chilled), sliced into cubes (ghee is the best dairy-free)
- 1 egg/s whole egg whisked with the vanilla in it
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 vanilla -or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp rice malt syrup - fructose free OR maple syrup OR honey
Instructions
For the Pastry
- Pop all your flours in your food processor or thermomix and pulse to combine and aerate.
- Add your super chilled butter and blitz until crumble and combined.
- Whisk your egg, vanilla, cinnamon and syrup together.
- Add about ⅔ of this mixture slowly over 3-4 seconds into the processor. Has it gone to clumps? You’re done. Has it not? Add a tiny bit more.
- Save the leftovers of this mixture for a batch of French toast!
- Spatula out onto unbleached parchment paper and shape into a ball and pop in fridge for 30 minutes to make it more workable.
- Preheat oven to 180℃ / 350℉ fan forced OR 200℃ / 400℉ non fan forced oven.
- While the pastry is resting, pop all the nuts onto a baking tray and roast for 8 minutes in the oven (watch they don’t burn!). If you’re using activated nuts, no need to do this step, but if they’re plain, raw nuts, this is crucial. Take out and let cool as you work on other things.
- Now, line your quiche / tart tin with coconut oil or butter and then dust with buckwheat flour and shake o excess. This will help you when it comes to dislodging the tart later on!
- Plop your pastry blob into the tin and dust your hands with buckwheat to avoid sticking and start working the pastry to all the corners evenly to about ½ cm thick all round. Any excess – make a couple of short bread cookies out of it while you’re blind baking the base!
- Now, place parchment on top and weigh it down with raw beans, rice grains or pastry weights and blind bake in the oven for 10 minutes with the weights in, and a further 5 minutes without – this will mean your base isn’t soggy for the finished product later.
- Now, take the pastry shell out when you’ve just noticed a little bit of light golden action around the edges – This will mean you won’t have burnt ones later.
For the Filling
- Warm the syrup / honey, butter / ghee / coconut oil, cream and spices until all well combined.
- Whisk egg yolks and pour very slowly your liquid mix (step 1) into the yolks, while continuing to whisk to avoid the yolk cooking.
- Place the hazelnuts into the pastry shell, naked (pop them in a tea towel and shake until most of the skins fall away).
- Then pour your liquid over the top, leaving back 100ml liquid to go over the pecans afterwards.
- Now, layer your pecans over the top in whatever pretty pattern you fancy.
- Now drizzle the rest of the mixture over the pecans (keep a little back if it’s going to overflow. We don’t want that, and everyone’s quiche / tart tins are going to vary a little here)
- OPTIONAL: Sprinkle a little coconut sugar over the top of your tart. Not necessary, but will create a nice crust over the top. So.. why wouldn’t you?
- Now bake everything together in the oven for 30 minutes until well caramelised and pastry is a deep golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and cool.
- Then, to dislodge safely without ruining the corner bits of the tart slide the knife to the corners of the underside of the base (if you have a removable base) and apply a little pressure up, and do that to all 4 corners before pressing from the centre.
- Serve with double cream or coconut cream. Heaven.
Store
- In an airtight container or covered in the fridge.