Caramelised Fruit and Nut Tart

The cupboard in the kitchen that houses all of my baking supplies has been significantly depleted as of late, and in particular I’ve ended up with lots of open bags of different nuts and dried fruit all of random and annoying weights. A quick read of my baking books gave me the perfect solution: Caramelised Fruit and Nut Tarts. The recipe allowed me to use up the pre-opened packets and do something useful with them. Plus, it came at the right time – this week was tart week on the Great British Bake Off so I felt at least this bake would be relevant!

The recipe comes from The Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days, and it’s also below.

You can either use it to make 8 small tarts (using 10cm diameter loose-bottomed tart tins) or a large one. As I don’t have 8 small tins (how?! That’s very unlike me!) I used my 22cm loose-bottomed flan tin and used the left-over pastry to make 2 small tarts too. There was plenty of filling, so it all worked out well. However, I rather stupidly decided to make this an hour and a half before GBBO began and didn’t leave enough time to do it properly. I had a massive disaster making my caramel and burnt the first batch, and even when trying again the sugar crystallised around the sides of the saucepan. What a nightmare! Luckily the second batch was useable, but it wasn’t up to scratch by any stretch of the imagination – it wasn’t thick enough and just wasn’t right. Basically, if you haven’t made caramel before (or if, like me, you have but are having a silly day) then make sure you have spare ingredients to start again if necessary! That’ll teach me not to rush and bake on a deadline quite like that again!

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
110g unsalted butter, softened
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
80g caster sugar
1 large egg

For the filling:
210g caster sugar
60ml double cream
6 tbsp unsalted butter (or 90g – I found it easier to measure it out using grams rather than a tablespoon)
550g mixed dried fruit and nuts (you can use whatever you want for this part as long as you make up the weight. I used cranberries, sultanas, macadamia nuts, pecans and flaked almonds but apricots, hazelnuts, walnuts etc would be just as good.)

Method:
Using a hand-held electric whisk mix together the butter and flour until a crumb-like consistency, then add the sugar and egg, mixing gently just to incorporate.

When a dough starts to form, take it out of the bowl and knead gently on a floured work surface to bring it together. Cover the pastry in cling-film and put in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes.

Once the pastry has rested, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 5mm and large enough to fill the tin you’re using. Line the tin with the pastry, gently pressing it down into the base and sides. Using a sharp knife cut away any excess pastry in a neat line with the edge of the tin and prick the base a few times with the knife. Reuse the leftover pastry to line any extra tins in the same way. Place them in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes.

While the cases are resting, preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit), Gas Mark 3.

Remove the tart cases from the fridge, line them with baking parchment and fill with baking beans.

Place in the oven and bake blind for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven, remove the baking beans carefully (they’ll be really hot – obviously - I’ve made the mistake of removing them too quickly and burnt myself before!) and remove the baking parchment. Bake the tart cases for another 10 minutes or until completely cooked and a light golden brown in colour.

While the tart case(s) are cooking, you can make the filling. Place the sugar in a saucepan with 4 tablespoons of water and bring to the boil, allowing the mixture to bubble away until you have a rich golden brown colour. DO NOT LET IT BURN! If you do then you’ll need to start again, as I did. Remove it from the heat and add the double cream, followed by the butter, stirring continuously.
Set the caramel aside for about 10 minutes, to cool slightly, and place the mixed fruit and nuts in a bowl. Once the caramel has cooled, pour it over the fruit and nuts, stirring to ensure they are completely coated. Pour the filling into the pastry case(s) and place in the fridge for 30-40 minutes until set.

All throughout the baking process I was terrified that my pastry wouldn’t work, but miraculously it did: it didn’t crumble and there were no soggy bottoms, so thumbs up all-round! Obviously if you don’t want to make the pastry yourself then shop bought short-crust pastry would suffice. The filling was a little sickly but I think that’s down to the disastrous caramel – if made with the proper care and attention then it would have been much better! Also, it didn’t look much like the picture in the book as the caramel was too thin and the filling was independent to the pastry, but I’m not too worried with my attempt. Serve slices of this with whipped cream or ice cream. Let me know if you, or someone you know, try it out!