Monday, February 05, 2007

How Do I Love Thee?...I'm Nuts About You!




Sweetie loves nuts. It's his favorite snack, especially peanuts, cashews and macadamia nuts.

I’ve been saving this recipe for a long time because it sounds like something that he would love. When I wrote about making tart dough with the food processor a few days ago, I remembered this recipe and decided that it’s the perfect thing for day five, made with five nuts: walnuts, pecans, macadamias, almonds and hazelnuts. Great idea, but a search of the pantry did not turn up the hazelnuts, so I’m cheating a bit…only four nuts. Let’s just pretend that it’s all five, O.K. It’s been a long day. I also used two different china patterns to serve the tart slices, but it tasted yummy on both. The slice on the white plate is at the bottom of today's post.

Nut Mosaic Tart
Adapted from a Sunset Magazine recipe from around 1983

Use all of one kind of nut, or equal parts of a variety

3 cups whole or half nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, pistachios, pecans, peanuts)
Butter pastry (recipe follows)
3 eggs
1 cup honey
½ teaspoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup butter or margarine, melted
Sweetened whipped cream (optional)

Place nuts (if unroasted) in a shallow pan and put into a 350 degree F oven until lightly toasted, about 10 minutes. (Toasting each variety of nut in a separate pan helps you keep from burning the smaller nuts). Let cool.


Press butter pastry evenly over the bottom and sides of an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

In a bowl, combine eggs, honey, orange peel, vanilla, and melted butter; beat well until blended. Stir in toasted nuts. Pour into pastry-lined tart pan. Bake on the bottom rack of a 350 degree F oven until the top is golden brown all over, about 40 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. Remove pan sides. Offer wedges with whipped cream. Makes 10-12 servings.

Butter Pastry
Combine 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, and ½ cup butter, cut into piees. Whirl in a food processor or cut butter in with a pastry blender or two knives until coarse crumbs form. Add 1 egg yolk; process or sir until dough sticks together.







3 comments :

  1. That looks soooo good!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Brilynn! You're even sweeter than the tart :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:17 AM

    Thanks so much for this recipe---it's been a family favorite for years, but we lost the original Sunset magazine and feared we'd lost the recipe forever. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete