Australian · Dessert
Macadamia and Wattleseed Tart
- Advanced
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 250 g sweet shortcrust pastry
- 200 g macadamias, halved
- 10 g roasted wattleseed, coarsely ground
- 120 ml pouring cream
- 180 g golden syrup
- 80 g dark brown sugar
- 50 g unsalted butter, melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 0.5 tsp fine salt
The skills inside
Tempering a custardPie crust & blind bakingStraining & passing through a sieveThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Line a 23 cm tart tin with the pastry, chill it hard for 30 minutes, then blind bake at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes with beans and 10 minutes without, until the base is dry and sandy under a fingertip. 30 min
- Bring the cream to just below a simmer, stir in the ground wattleseed, cover and steep 20 minutes, then strain and press the grounds firmly to recover the liquid. 20 min
- Whisk the golden syrup, brown sugar, melted butter, salt and vanilla into the wattleseed cream, then whisk in the eggs one at a time, keeping the whisk under the surface so you beat in no air.
- Scatter the macadamias across the blind baked shell and pour the filling over; the nuts will float and set as a single layer on top.
- Bake at 160C (320F) for 35 to 40 minutes until the edge is set and the centre wobbles as one piece, like a set custard, then cool completely before cutting. 40 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Pie crust & blind baking 29 recipes
- The shell goes into the oven cold and the oven is fully up to heat, so the structure sets before the fat has time to melt out of it.
- Lined and weighted right into the corners rather than heaped in the middle, so the sides are held against the tin as the fat softens.
- Docked where it is not meant to puff, and the base stays flat rather than lifting into a dome under its own steam.
- The weights come out and the base gets dry heat of its own before anything wet arrives. Pale and damp is not baked, and a filling will not finish it.
- The edges are set and coloured and the shell releases from the tin rather than gripping it.
Where it goes wrong It went in warm, or the weights only filled the middle. The sides slump down the tin before the pastry sets, so the case is shallower than it should be, the filling overflows it, and the base is still raw underneath: the soggy bottom, arrived at three ways at once.
Tempering a custard 59 recipes
- The hot liquid went into the eggs a little at a time with constant whisking, and only then did everything go back to the pot.
- The heat under it stayed gentle throughout and it was never allowed to boil.
- Stirred continuously and right into the corners of the pan, where it thickens first and sets unnoticed.
- Judged by behaviour: it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a clean line when a finger is drawn through it.
- Taken off before it looks finished, and strained. Residual heat carries it the rest of the way, and a custard held on the heat until it looks right arrives past right.
Where it goes wrong The hot liquid went in too fast, or the pot went back over full heat to save time. The yolks set into threads before they could thicken smoothly, and a scrambled custard does not come back; straining hides a little of it and nothing hides the rest.
At the Table
- The Pour
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The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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