Caramel Maple Walnut Tarts
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup superfine sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup or 2 sticks unsalted cold butter cut into small cubes
- 2 large egg yolks
- 5 tablespoons heavy cream plus 1 more tablespoon if needed
Caramel Maple Walnut Filling
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- 1 1/3 cups heavy cream warmed in a small saucepan
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon maple extract
- 4 cups walnuts coarsely chopped
Instructions
Shortbread Crust
- Pulse flour, sugar and salt in a food processor until well blended.
- Add the cold butter and pulse until butter is the size of small peas.
- Add the yolks and 5 tablespoons cream, and pulse until the dough forms a crumbly dough.
- Pour out into a large bowl. If dough is too dry, add the extra tablespoon of heavy cream. Press the dough together to form a 1-inch thick disk.
Caramel Maple Walnut Filling
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
- In a medium saucepan, stir the sugar, corn syrup and water until blended.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove the spoon and stop stirring. Wash down any sugar crystals that have formed on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water.
- Keep boiling the mixture until it turns the color of medium brewed tea.
- Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the warm heavy cream. Be careful the mixture will spatter.
- Return the pan to a medium low heat and whisk to melt down any clumps of caramel that may have formed. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Whisk in the maple syrup and extract.
- Using a spoon, blend in the walnuts, and pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl to cool.
- Allow the mixture to cool for a few hours and thicken.
Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Cut the dough in half. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough to a ¼ inch thickness, and cut out 12 5-inch diameter circles. Press a circle of dough into each of 12 greased 4 inch diameter false bottom tart pans. Trim off any excess dough by rolling a rolling pin over each tart pan. Place tart pans onto 2 or 3 sheet pans that have each been lined with aluminum foil.
- Fill each tart pan with ¼ cup of the cooled caramel maple walnut filling.
- Roll out remaining dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Using a pizza cutter, cut ¼ inch wide strips about 4 ½ inches long to cover the top of each tart. You will need to make 72 strips total. Place 3 strips going across the filling spacing them so they do not touch. Place 3 more strips perpendicular to the others spacing them out as well.
- Pinch off any excess dough from the sides of each tart.
- Bake the tarts for 20-23 minutes or until crust is light brown and filling is bubbly.
- Allow to cool completely before removing tarts from pans.
Notes
Makes approximately 12 4-½ inch diameter tarts