Maple Pecan Toffee Tart Recipe

This is the recipe I’d chosen for my first attempt at the Irish Foodies Cookalong on Friday that took ‘Food for Romance’ as its theme.

Not necessarily a combination of ingredients you’d imagine in terms of romance, but I knew the moment I saw the title for this recipe in Rachel Allen's cookbook that it would press all of Mr G’s buttons. Usually a savoury man, and the spicier the better, if there was any combination of dessert ingredients guaranteed to make Mr G melt it would be maple syrup and nuts.

However, my attempts to join all the fun seemed destined to fail from the beginning.

First of all I was out for hours on cookalong day – from Cuffesgrange to Kilkenny to Carlow – I seemed to have an endless shopping list, finally arriving home with a thumping headache, wanting nothing more than to put up my feet and drink tea. However, determined to cook now that I had the ingredients (one of my stop offs was at the fabulous Shortis Wong’s in Kilkenny to pick up the pecans), after a lovely supper cooked by Mr G, I put on my apron and turned on the oven.

I started routing around in the baking cupboard for the suggested loose bottomed tart tin, and after emptying it twice, had to give up - it couldn’t be found anywhere. No problem thinks I, I’ll make it in a heart shaped tin – perfect for the Romance element – and pray that it will come out in one piece.

Then I checked into the Facebook page and it seemed that everyone was making two dishes – a starter or an elaborate main, or a main and a dessert.  Flick to Twitter – what’s everyone doing there – oh no, they all seemed to have phones that sent pictures straight to Twitter… still haven’t figured out how to do that.

Not one to be thwarted, I kept going and made the sweet pastry, placing it in the freezer to chill quickly. So far so good, cookalong or not Mr G was now looking forward to his treat.

“Meanwhile (while the pastry is cooking), make the rest of the filling. Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil”. Maple syrup, sugar, butter, pecans and cream. CREAM?????

I thought that was just to add as a dollop on the side, not to make the toffee sauce. And there was I being ‘good’ not buying it (did you notice the ingredients list?)

Well. That was it. Had to throw in the towel as there’s only so much a gal will do for romance and driving 10 miles for cream after a day like I’d had weren’t going to be it. Where’s the wine?

Fortunately another paragraph in the book said the magic words “chill the pastry in the fridge for another 30 minutes or in the freezer for 10 minutes – it can be kept for weeks like this in the freezer).”

I like Rachel Allen – she seems to know just what to say AND she has pretty ribbon bookmarks in her books.

So that’s where my tart stayed - in the second drawer of the freezer until today when I picked up a small pot of cream from our local XL Shop and finished it off. Too late for the cookalong but it did put a huge smile on the children’s faces “mum, this is the tastiest thing you’ve ever cooked” – and as for himself? Well that would be telling now.

Ingredients

(for the sweet pastry)

200g plain sifted flour

100g chilled butter, cubed

1 tbsp. icing sugar, sifted

½ to 1 egg, beaten

For the filling

275g shelled pecans, coarsely chopped saving 3 whole nuts for decorating

250 ml maple syrup

75g light soft brown sugar

150g butter

75ml double or regular cream

Method

First of all I made the pastry by putting all of the dry pastry ingredients in the food processor and whizzing until the butter was in small lumps, before adding half the beaten egg and whizzing a bit more. When the mixture looked like it would all come together I emptied it into a bowl and quickly finished making the dough in my hands.  I then rolled it out and wrapped it in cling film and put it in the fridge for half an hour.

I then rolled out the pastry between a couple of sheets of cling film and placed it in a pre-lined and buttered tin (minus the cling film). I pricked the base with a fork and put it in the freezer (for two days). Once out of the freezer the pastry was lined with baking paper and filled with baking beans, and baked 'blind' for 15 minutes. Once out the beans and paper were removed and the pastry basted with beaten egg before being put back in the oven for 3 minutes or so.

The pecan nuts were put onto a baking tray and roasted for five minutes too.

Meanwhile…… make the rest of the filling. This is where all the ingredients (except the nuts) were put in a saucepan and brought to the boil, INCLUDING THE CREAM, and stirred until the sugar had dissolved. It was then allowed to boil ‘vigorously’ for five minutes, removed from the heat and the nuts stirred in and poured into the pre-baked tart base. The tart was then put back into the oven and cooked for 30 – 35 minutes until it was bubbling and brown.

Once cool it was placed into the fridge to chill (for the minimum amount of time possible!)