Eccentric Flower:201011/Sugar

Taking a moment out from the world of Exeter data migration and debilitating head/chest colds to post a recipe for a friend. She had some problems with cooking sugar/caramel the other day (among other things no one warned her that in candy-making, one always puts the alcohol in at the end).

She said today she was attempting a general plan of "shortbread + nuts + thin, crackly shell" that was "hard rather than gooey so it could be shipped hither and thither." Well, I have a tart recipe that I've been using for years. It is not crackly like brittle, but nor does it stay soft and gooey like a good pecan pie filling. In fact, if you make the mistake of refrigerating it, you end up needing to saw pieces of the tart off with a serrated blade because a straight blade simply won't cut it - it's that solid. And you don't need a candy thermometer to make it.

This recipe is in three sections: The dough, which is an extremely forgiving, butter-sugar pastry, more like shortbread than pie crust; the syrup, which is liquid when hot and firms completely as it cools; and the nuts. Although this was intended to make a nine-inch tart, it can also be adapted to 16 small tartlets. The dough is too soft to make freestanding casings or cookies, although you could try spreading a layer of it on a sheet and cutting into really thin bar cookies later. Or you could try making shortbread cookies on your own initiative and pour the syrup over them (it would work better if the cookies were somewhat concave on top, or it's just going to run off).

As for the nuts, you could 1) pour the syrup over them and then put the whole mess back in the oven (the tart method) 2) mix them into the syrup and let them cook in it a bit before using it, or you could 3) pour the syrup, let it cool a bit and press nuts into that. If you choose the latter approach (which means the nuts don't get cooked in the hot syrup), I recommend you toast them first.

The rest is up to your sense of experimentation.

N.B. You will want a HEAVY 2-quart pot for the syrup. And if you do try to make the 9" tart, you need a removable-bottom pan. You will not get it out of the pan any other way. (The tartlets have to be pried out of their cups with a knife.)

TART SHELL

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

Beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. An electric or stand mixer is ideal. Add the egg yolk and beat well until fully combined. Gradually beat in flour in small doses until completely blended, no more. The mixture will look like wet yellow crumbs; this is not a mistake.

Press the dough together into a ball with your hands and then press evenly into your tart pan or tartlet molds, making sure to go all the way up the sides. It's enough dough for a 9" tart pan but you have to work at it. Fortunately this dough is forgiving - if you crack or tear the dough, just patch it.

Regardless of application, you will need to prebake this dough in a 375 degree oven until lightly browned, and let it cool, before you pour syrup over it. For the 9" tart that's about 12 minutes, for the tartlets, 8 to 10.

NUTS

The original recipe calls for 2 cups of coarsely chopped walnuts. Pecans have been successfully substituted in the past. If you are making the tart/tartlets, spread them evenly in the shell(s) once the shells have been baked and cooled. If you are going to try cooking them in the syrup, see below. If neither, you will want to toast them briefly in that 375 oven.

SYRUP

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup cup dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Combine all ingredients in heavy pot - try to get them fully mixed before you turn the heat on, because the butter and cream may burn if they're not fully mixed into the sugars first. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat - and watch out; this stuff makes big volcanic bubbles. Boil for one minute.

If you are making the tart/tartlets, you can now pour this into the tart shell full of nuts, because they're going to go back into the oven. If the syrup is not going to go back into the oven, I'd let it cook for, oh, five to eight minutes longer just below boil (keep stirring!) to let it firm up. If you're going to add the nuts to the syrup, do that after the first boil and let them stew in the syrup for that 5-8 minutes.

With the tarts, once you pour the syrup over the nuts/shell, they go back into the 375 oven until the mixture bubbles again - ten minutes for the big tarts, eight for the little ones.

Let cool completely before you try to slice or consume. Not only is it too liquid until it cools, you would burn your mouth something fierce. Like gumbo roux, this mixture bears some similarities to napalm.

This recipe is only personally guaranteed for the tart/tartlet version. For any other experiments, you are on your own. I will point out, though, that if some disaster happens and your syrup does not firm up as much as you'd like, simply refrigerate it and it will turn quite solid.

Eccentric Flower talk:201011/Sugar