And there we go... What was bound to happen happened! By thinking I could be everywhere, all the time and without sleeping (sleep, that's something overrated, right?^^). I woke up yesterday with a runny nose, Darth Vader's voice and the energy of a sloth on vacation... Anyway, the need to put this week under the sign of rest (which is rather convenient with this long weekend). Still, out of the question to leave you without a little recipe to sink your teeth into, so here are some easy-to-make walnut tarts!
I made this recipe a few weeks ago, following my last weekend in Normandy. The trees had started to produce walnuts and I came back with a full bag (it's really nice to be able to source directly from your garden!). Since I had some leftover sweet pastry that I had used for my Christmas log test (which I need to tell you about very soon), my recipe was already almost ready. All I was missing was a nice thick caramel to coat everything.
To do this, I did some digging and came across (again) this nice recipe from Bernard. The sweet pastry comes from Rose and Cook and her recipe that I learned for the CAP, and that I haven't parted with since.
I would very much like to give you great tips for easy caramel but in fact, it's a technique I master quite poorly (just goes to show that even super simple recipes for some can be real challenges for others). In theory, you're supposed to touch it as little as possible, but when I do that, the edges burn and the middle isn't melted. Using glucose syrup if you have it seems quite effective to prevent the edges from burning but it's still a bit of a challenge for me. If you have any tips, don't hesitate to share them in the comments!
As for the tart, I tried to brown the pastry at the end of cooking as I read in the latest "Crazy About Pastry" but I don't think it was successful. I'll have to do more tests.
