Five Nut Caramel Tart – Who Needs Pecan Pie?

I’m from the South and in many ways, heartily appreciate the food culture from that part of the country. Collard greens, black-eyed peas, fried chicken, fried okra, fried green tomatoes…okay, fried everything. But, the one Southern comfort food I cannot handle is pecan pie. Whether you call it “PEE-can” or “pe-CON” pie, this sticky, overly sweetened confection is one of the worst desserts to have come from the South, in my opinion.

Most pecan pies are little more than a pastry filled with corn syrup, table sugar, eggs, vanilla and pecans. These beautiful nuts, already sweet and delicious on their own, are drowned in a pool of corn syrup, completely masking any discernible nut flavor. You are left with a crunchy, chewy mass, lacking any semblance of flavor complexity. If this diabetes-inducing treat isn’t sweet enough for you, never fear! Thanks to Pinterest, you can find countless incarnations of this dessert that utilize candy bars, chocolate, bourbon and so much more. Sick.

Given my obvious disgust for pecan pie, I was surprised to find that a recipe for a Five Nut Caramel Tart would pique any interest. Although pecans are not one of the five nuts required for this recipe, there are some obvious similarities between this tart and the classic pecan pie. You have pastry and you have nuts, but in lieu of a bed of corn syrup, the nuts are coated in a delicious homemade caramel sauce and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Crunchy, chewy, salty and sweet but not a lick of Karo Syrup. Now that’s a dessert I can get excited about.

This recipe is from the book, The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Weekends. I adore The Splendid Table public radio program hosted by Lynn Rossetto Kasper and have enjoyed many recipes from this franchise. This particular cookbook is dedicated to weekend cooking, an endeavor which requires more time but one that can result in fantastic meals. The recipes in this cookbook may take a little more time and a little more skill but do seem very promising. Since my good friend Kim requested that I attempt to make a pastry as one of my 100 First Tastes this year, this Five Nut Caramel Tart is dedicated to her!

As I’ve said before, baking is a science! I usually take some liberties with other recipes but since this is baking, I followed the instructions and recipe ingredients accurately. Here is the recipe:

 PASTRY

1 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (4 ounces) cold, unsalted butter (plus more for buttering the pan)

2 large egg yolks

1 1/2 tablespoons ice water

FILLING

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (packed)

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup toasted salted cashews

2/3 cup toasted salted macadamia nuts

1/2 cup whole blanched almonds

1/3 cup salted, shelled pistachios

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

For this recipe, you’ll need a tart pan or some other comparable pan with a false bottom. The recipe did call for an eleven-inch diameter pan but I only own a nine-inch tart pan, so that’s what I used. This recipe also comes together best if you have a food processor to make the pastry, but you can totally do that by hand if you prefer to.

The first thing you’ll need to do is make the pastry. In all the years I’ve been baking, I’ve never made this kind of pastry before so I was very excited to give this a try. I typically make a standard pie crust but this pastry is more like a shortbread, buttery and a little crumbly rather than flaky.

Measure out your flour using the “dip and level” method. Simply dip the measuring cup into your flour to pull out a heaping pile. Use the back of a butter knife to level off the flour by sweeping off the excess with the straight edge. This fills the measuring container without packing the flour down. No sifting required for this recipe. Hooray!

Add the flour, sugar and salt to your food processor and give it a quick pulse to blend the dry ingredients. Next add the stick of cold butter (cut into pieces) into the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Separate egg yolks from the egg whites. The recipe actually called for one and a half egg yolks but I have no clue how I would do that accurately so I just used two full egg yolks. Save the egg whites for another use and add the cold water to your egg yolks.

Add the yolk and water mixture to the food processor and pulse until the dough begins to form. At the half way point, the dough will look like cheese curds or cooked cauliflower. Keep going until you have a large dough ball rolling around the container.

The finished dough will look like this. Take care not to over-blend the dough. You don’t want to handle it too much.

Gather the dough and flatten it into a disc. Wrap in plastic and let rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place the rack in the center of your oven.

Butter your tart pan. Make sure to get the sides too! There may be some dripping, so bake the tart on a lined sheet pan.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let rest for a few minutes to soften. Press the dough out evenly with your hands to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. I’m certain my crust wasn’t even and was definitely thicker than 1/8 of an inch. It didn’t seem like an issue to me. Just do your best, this recipe is pretty forgiving! Press dough up the sides of the pan and trim of excess with a knife.

Once your crust is all situated, you’ll need to refrigerate the pastry AGAIN. This can stay in the fridge for a minimum of thirty minutes or overnight. While that’s cooling down, get out your pie weights.

What’s that you say? You don’t own any pie weights? You have no clue what a pie weight is? Not a problem! I keep a jar of dry beans around to use as weights when making a pre-bake crust or pastry. Any dry bean will do and these are much, much cheaper than getting a set of pie weights, which are nothing more than a metal string of pearls to help keep your pastry from sliding down.

Remove your cooled pastry from the refrigerator, gently line with parchment paper and fill to the rim with your baking beans or pie weights. Bake for ten minutes.

After ten minutes, remove the beans and paper. Bake for an additional ten minutes or longer until the tart shell is golden brown. Cool completely on a rack.

While that’s cooling, make your filling and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, combine butter, sugars and honey. Cook over low heat until the sugars completely dissolve.

Once dissolved, raise the heat and whisk until the mixture comes to a boil. Boil for one minute, or until large bubbles form.

Next, stir in the nut mixture and the cream. Turn off heat and combine thoroughly.

Immediately pour the filling into the tart shell and bake for about 20 minutes or until the filling bubbles. Remove the tart and cool on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Once the tart has begun to cool, you can remove the side of the pan to expose the crust.

The final step? Slice this baby up with a sharp knife and enjoy with a cup of coffee or a tall glass of milk.

This recipe serves eight to ten people and will hold for about four days but is absolutely the best the first day it’s baked. You can keep it in the fridge but remove it a few minutes earlier than you’d like to cut it up so the caramel can come to room temperature.

This tart is really impressive. It took quite some time to put together but only because there was a lot of downtime with the pastry prep and resting. There’s nothing very technical about this recipe and the dough was super easy to work with. Even with no pastry or baking experience, this recipe is easy to tackle.

Although I wouldn’t mess with the pastry recipe, I would say you could change the nut combination if you have a preference or distaste for certain nuts. Dan liked the macadamia nuts the best but I thought the almonds and cashews stole the show. We both thought that the pine nuts weren’t very noticeable and would leave those out next time because those things are super pricey!

The toasted nuts provide distinct textural experiences and flavors. The crust is buttery and slightly crumbly. The caramel sauce is SO good with just the right amount of sweetness. Furthermore, this thing looks seriously professional. This tart is what a pecan pie should be, highlighting the flavors of these nuts rather than submerging them in a sea of corn syrup. It reminds me of a highly elevated Payday candy bar, with fancy nuts instead of peanuts.

It’s true, I’ve probably alienated some people with my complete abhorrence of pecan pie, but before you write me off altogether, maybe give this recipe a try? See how delicious a nut-based dessert can taste.  I’m as health conscious as the next person but sometimes a girl (or guy) just needs a really naughty dessert. When you get a craving like that, don’t waste your time on a store-bought treat or a corn-syrup laden disaster like the classic pecan pie. Instead, why not try your hand at a Five Nut Caramel Tart and see what a decadent dessert can really taste like?

You won’t be sorry.

Bacon Brownies – How Are These Not Delicious?

Well, it had to happen eventually. It’s unrealistic for all 100 recipes I make this year to be knockouts so I shouldn’t be disappointed that the thirteenth recipe I made was a bust. The truth is, I had such high expectations for this one: Paleo Bacon Brownies.

When my friend Mandy posted a picture of a batch of dark chocolate brownies, sprinkled with crisp bacon pieces, I just knew I wanted to sink my teeth into that sweet-savory dessert. When I got the recipe and saw that these were grain-free and were also fortified with coffee, I wasted no more time and made a date with my oven.

Like sea salt caramel before it, bacon has now taken over as the darling ingredient in popular cuisine. Just stop by any cupcake shop, modern bakery or dessert bar and you’ll see at least one dessert laden with the always popular cured meat. America’s obsession with sweet and salty in one bite must be responsible for this bacon dessert craze. It’s not limited to dessert, mind you. I’ve seen bacon beer, bacon vodka, bacon candy and for the purists who don’t care to muddle their bacon with other ingredients but just want more bacon, there’s the ever popular bacon weave.

I am not immune to the bacon craze. I was raised in the south and enjoyed bacon at the breakfast table with some regularity. My family, being from East Tennessee, taught me at a young age that the only way to enjoy canned green beans is to cook them down in a few tablespoons of bacon grease for hours until little to no nutritional value remained. I have dabbled in bacon-for-dessert myself. My grandmother has a killer recipe for something we lovingly call S.O.B. – Special Occasion Bacon, which consists of thick-sliced bacon dredged in equal parts brown sugar and freshly cracked pepper and baked in the oven until you are left with essentially bacon candy. A few years ago, I rang in the new year with some friends, a glass of Champaign and a loaf of homemade bacon monkey bread. What better way to start a new year?

So, this recipe was a little disappointing but perhaps it’s because I have high bacony expectations? I should also confess that my all time favorite dessert would be the humble homemade brownie. I have very strong feelings about brownies. My bacon and brownie bias likely was a difficult hurdle to overcome.

Despite this recipe not ranking as highly as I would have liked, I think lots of other people would probably really like this dessert. It does have a lot to offer. To start, the texture is aces. It’s really a very fudgy brownie which is exactly the kind of brownie I like best. It’s also grain-free/Paleo, only sweetened with maple syrup and is highly caffeinated for those of you who enjoy a little pick me up with your dessert. This recipe is from Everyday Paleo which is a great cookbook for people looking for quick Paleo recipes that the whole family can enjoy. Here’s the recipe I used:

 8 ounces dark chocolate

1/2 cup reserved bacon fat

1/2 cup coconut oil or butter

6 eggs

4 tablespoons strong brewed coffee

4 tablespoons fine coffee grounds

1 cup Grade B maple syrup

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

6-7 pieces of baked bacon

So, if you want to give it a try, even given my less-than-stellar personal review, here’s how it’s done.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the chocolate, bacon fat and the oil or butter. Make sure to stir often to prevent burning. This can also be done over a double boiler. Once melted, set aside to cool.

Mix the eggs and maple syrup together until well blended. Next, you can mix in the cooled chocolate mixture.

Make sure you start out with a large bowl! I had to transfer the mixture to a larger bowl at this point. This is when it pays to really read the instructions properly before starting to cook. Whoops!

Next, you can sift in the cocoa powder slowly and whisk into wet ingredients. Once cocoa is well blended, you can mix in the brewed coffee and coffee grounds.

Pour batter into an oiled 13×9 pan. Chop up your bacon slices and sprinkle on top. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, cool and slice up!

There you have it, Paleo Bacon Brownies. Maybe it’s harsh of me to say these aren’t delicious. They’re not my favorite but hey, they might just be your cup or tea… or piece of brownie for that matter. Truman Capote had great quote about failure that seems apropos:

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”                                  

Hey, I have 87 more recipes to go and I can’t let this one get me down. When it comes to bacon, I’d just assume enjoy it fresh out of the oven, or wrapped around a meatloaf. And when it comes to brownies, there’s nothing that can top my grandma’s extra dark chocolate variety… except maybe this gluten-free recipe from Elana’s Pantry.

Coffee, chocolate and bacon – a culinary trifecta of vices. You may have let me down this time, but I will have my revenge.

Eat Your Heart Out LARA – Homemade Energy Bars

You know that feeling you get when you see something so simple, so ingenious and it’s making someone a ton of money? When you say to yourself, “I can totally do that” and then you come back to reality, where laziness and apathy override any attempts at creativity and you say to yourself, “nah, I can just buy that.” 

I feel that way about most energy bars, particularly the ones sold at natural food stores. Those two ounce whole food bars are utter gold mines and I always feel resentful that I am paying for a few ingredients blended up, extruded out and beautifully packaged when I could totally make these at home and save a chunk of change. For years, I have been saying this about my favorite whole food snack, the Larabar.

The good folks at Larabar definitely know what they’re doing. Although their product line has expanded over the years, the simplest bar they make is their flagship line which boasts that each flavor has no more than nine ingredients and are little more than unsweetened fruits, nuts and spices. There are nearly 20 flavors to choose from, all of which are delicious configurations of these three ingredients – nuts, fruits and spices.

I have been convincing myself that I should make an attempt at homemade Larabars (or something close to them) for a long time but I always talk myself out of it, citing how long it would take and how many ingredients it would require. But a funny thing happened last night. Rather than making a batch of Paleo Bacon Brownies (which I do hope to get on sooner rather than later) Dan suggested that we make something out of the dates and coconut overloading our pantry. In a moment of weakness, I finally succumbed to the homemade energy bar.

I haven’t come across any recipes in my own cookbook collection for something close to an energy bar, so I did a quick internet search for “date paleo bar” and had over 2 million hits. Sheesh. Although not always the best approach to internet queries, I went with the first page on the list and it was perfect!  Thanks, Turtlewoman, for creating this great recipe. I modified it slightly, here’s the recipe we used:

1/3 cup raw cacao (or you can use regular cocoa powder)

1 1/2 cups raw, pitted Medjool dates

1/3 cup raw ground flax seed

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup raw almonds (soaked and dehydrated work too)

1/2 cup raw walnuts (soaked and dehydrated work too)

1/2 cup raw coconut shavings

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons raw, expeller pressed coconut oil

1/8 teaspoon sea salt (optional)

The original recipe called for dried fruit, such as Goji berries, cranberries or cherries but I swapped those out for coconut. I was going more for a chocolate coconut energy bar kind of a thing.

For this recipe, I used my food processor and also used the dry grain container on my Vitamix to grind the flax seeds into flax meal.

Flax seeds are interesting. If you eat them whole, you will barely get any nutritional benefit. The ol’, they went right through me routine. If you buy pre-packaged flax seed meal and expose it to air or light, it will become rancid and again, you will not benefit very much from that. My solution is to buy whole flax seeds and grind them up just before you use them. Even a tiny food processor will grind these fickle little seeds up for you. If you’re going to eat flax seeds, you might as well make it worth your while.

Steps one through three! Put the pitted dates into your food processor fitted with the s-blade attachment. If they are a little hard, I would add a tablespoon of warm water. Blend until a thick paste forms. Add chocolate, ground flax seeds, vanilla, cinnamon, coconut oil and salt. Pulse to blend thoroughly. Finally add the nuts and coconut. Pulse mixture until the nuts and coconut are to the size you desire. It should look something like this:

Pour mixture onto a wax paper lined pan. Press mixture down with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a rectangle shape about 1/2 inch thick. Another option is to just ditch this “bar” shape and roll out little spheres. I created little lines with a knife so I could cut equal sized bars. Once the loaf is the size and shape you are looking for, transfer to the fridge or freezer to cool until firm.

Once firm, you can remove and slice up your energy bars. This made about 6 bars, weighing in about 2.5 ounces each. Store in an airtight container in your fridge. Keep each layer separated by a layer of wax paper to prevent sticking.

Boom! Energy Bars. These things are AMAZING and seriously taste just like the real deal, even better! This is closest to the Chocolate Coconut Chew bar but tastes so much better with the addition of a little sea salt to the mix. Since these also have flax seed meal, coconut and coconut oil, there are a lot of really good fats in these homemade energy bars. Not to mention cinnamon which helps promote circulation and raw cacao which has a little caffeine boost. I am a jerk for not attempting these sooner.

These whole food energy bars are also raw, vegan, gluten-free, paleo and bottom line.. super tasty! They do have a base of dates, so there’s a fair amount of sugar in these suckers but at least you get plenty of dietary fiber along for the ride. This recipe is a great basic guideline for tons of other flavor combinations. Let your imagination run wild!

I can’t believe how long I’ve been putting this off. This was REALLY easy, and I don’t mean like making Shrimp Stock-easy. This is like 10 ingredients, 10 minutes, really rewarding snack-easy.

Listen to yourself this time, you can totally do this!

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) Vanilla Ice Cream

In a world where avant garde ice cream flavors rule, the lowly vanilla variety has certainly fallen by the wayside. I am not immune to the siren song of bacon, red bean, caviar or avocado ice cream flavors and honestly, can’t remember a time when I have ever ordered vanilla ice cream. I’m a sucker for anything on a menu that sounds a little off-beat and interesting so regularly go for the kookiest or – true to my so-called hippy ways – the most local/sustainable item on the menu. Most recently, I was served vanilla ice cream in the form of the ever-popular “boozy” ice cream shake. My vanilla ice cream was accompanied by vodka, ginger beer, milk and lime juice. It was delicious.

But there is something to be said about simplicity and when it comes to ice cream, vanilla is as simple as it gets. And, since what was old  is now new -I’m looking at you handlebar mustaches- perhaps it is time for a vanilla revival?

I have a handful of cookbooks in my collection with recipes for ice cream but decided to go with my old standby, Nourishing Traditions. I went with this recipe for three reasons.

1. This recipe called for the least amount of ingredients and in the spirit of keeping things simple, seemed like the best option.
2. This particular recipe didn’t require any cooking and I could use the raw-unpasteurized  milk and cream I had on hand.
3. I actually had all of the ingredients that were called for and didn’t have to run to the grocery store. The perfect storm.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t always follow recipes exactly as they are given. In this case, I took a little artistic license. Here’s the modified recipe I used:

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup maple syrup (grade B preferably)

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/4 tsp fine sea salt

The original recipe called for 3 cups of heavy cream but the cream I got from my local dairy was SERIOUSLY thick so I decided to thin it out a little with 1 cup of whole milk. The recipe also called for 1 tablespoon of arrowroot (a natural thickener) but since I hit the jackpot on my cream, I left that out. Finally, the original recipe recommended using 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. I think would be fine but I just got a really good deal on whole vanilla beans so decided to use that instead. My recommendation, use what you have on hand but make sure you have really good ingredients!

Here’s a quick PSA on raw milk and eggs. I live in a part of the country where I am able to access raw dairy through a cow share program. My dairy is grass-fed, organic, free-roaming and cared for by two veterinarians and a group of knowledgable ranch hands. Although my family feels comfortable consuming raw-unpasteurized dairy and have for several years, this is a personal choice and one that I don’t expect everyone to agree with. I encourage everyone to research this subject and come to your own conclusion. There is great information here if you’d like to know more about raw milk. Since this recipe also calls for raw egg yolks, I would recommend sourcing your eggs locally (where you can see where your chickens are living and what they’re eating)  or opt for pasture-raised organic eggs from your grocery store. I have a great local farm that I source my eggs from but when I run out, Vital Farms eggs are a good alternative. End PSA!

Now that we have all of the vanilla ice cream politics squared away, let me show you how incredibly easy it is to make this at home. I didn’t even use any special equipment, just a few ingredients and my freezer. That’s right, I have a juicer, a dehydrator and a drawer full of all of this stuff…

… but don’t own an ice cream maker. Not to worry, you actually don’t need to own an ice cream maker to make your own at home. You do, however have to have a little more patience, for what it’s worth.

Pre-measure your ingredients, grab a large bowl, a whisk and a sharp knife. I’d also recommend getting two smaller bowls to separate your eggs into.

Here’s that heavy cream I was talking about. It really looks more like heavy clotted cream that the British use in their cooking. It was pretty darn hard to get out of that mason jar! If you’re using pasteurized cream, I’d recommend getting organic heavy whipping cream and use 3 cups of that plus 1 tablespoon of the arrowroot. Just skip out on the whole milk.

Add the cream to a large mixing bowl. Set that aside and get your eggs and two smaller bowls.

Gently crack your egg in half and let the whites of the egg fall into one bowl while you keep the yolk in one of the shell halves. Move the yolk from one shell to the next while letting all of the egg white drip into your bowl. Once you have all of the whites out and are left with only the yolk, drop the yolk into your other small bowl.

Working with two smaller bowls rather than the bowl with the cream is helpful just incase you have any mistakes like broken shell pieces or busted yolks. It does take some practice to get proficient at but anyone can master this! You can cook up the whites or freeze them for something delicious some other time!

Next, add the yolks, salt and milk to your cream. If you are using vanilla extract, you can add that. If you are using a whole bean, get the bean, a cutting board and a small sharp knife out.

With a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise into two pieces. Use the dull edge of your knife to scrape out all of the yummy vanilla seeds. These are tiny morsels of delight. Do not eat them out of hand… just add them to the bowl.

Finally, add your sweetener – grade B maple syrup. Despite the obvious connotation of being lower quality, grade B is your best choice when it comes to maple syrup. Grade B is less processed so has more trace minerals and is also richer in flavor. In this case, skip grade A syrup and for the love of God, don’s use any product that’s been anthropomorphized such as  Mrs. Butterworth’s. That stuff is seriously not good for you.

Once everything is in the bowl, mix it up thoroughly. If you have a hand mixer, this would be a good time to use that gadget. That’s yet another kitchen tool I don’t own. I prefer to use my guns and a sturdy whisk. Everything will blend nicely into a light yellow, frothy mixture. I would taste and see if you need to add more salt at this point. Pour the mixture into a container of your choice. I had a glass dish with a lid that just happened to fit in the one open space in my freezer. If you use a metal container, the ice cream will freeze faster. The same is true for more shallow containers.

Now for that patience thing I mentioned. You’ll need to be around to tend to your ice cream baby for the next couple of hours. Set your kitchen timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, your ice cream will begin to crystalize around the edges. All you need to do is scrape that off and thoroughly mix up the mixture. After 30 minutes, here’s what the ice cream will look like:

After another 30 minutes, it’ll be a littler firmer and will look like this: 

Eventually, you’ll have that recognizable ice cream consistency. This could take 2 to 3 hours but I assure you, it’s worth the wait.

You want to make sure to scrape and stir up your mix every 30 minutes or so. Otherwise, you’ll be left with a gigantic milky ice cube that is far from delectable. If you go a little too long, you can put the mix in the fridge until it’s slightly softened then mix thoroughly and return to the freezer. If you go way too long, you’ll have to use this ice cream hack I found on the internet. Take chunks of your ice cream cube and blend in a food processor until softened. I’m 100% certain it’s easier just to babysit your ice cream than to attempt to blend it up.

If you DO have an ice cream maker, you can skip all of the freezer scraping and dump the mix directly into your machine! Follow the instructions outlined by your manufacturer.

This makes approximately 1 quart of the most delicious and certainly far from boring vanilla ice cream I’ve ever eaten. It’s really rich but not too sweet. Plus, all of those vanilla seeds I added makes me feel like this qualifies as the more desirable “French” vanilla ice cream everyone seems to prefer.

So I’ve never ordered vanilla ice cream out before and it looks like I never will. This stuff is so good, I’m sure nothing outside of my kitchen will compare. With only a few ingredients and strikingly little effort, I have finally learned to appreciate the glory that is vanilla ice cream. For those of you out there who doubt me, I encourage you to give this a shot. There may not be a vanilla revival but for an appreciation of something that is simple and delicious, this vanilla ice cream is a perfect start.