Back-Engineered Recipe: Pine Nut Honey Tart

 

-Jesse Sutton-  Okay, so this is along the same lines as a rescued recipe, but I didn't put it there, because the restaurant this is from is still very much open.  I had this dish at the Wild Olive, many years ago.  It was just a tart, filled with pine-nuts and an eggy, honeyed filling.  It looked for all the world like a pecan pie, where someone had swapped out the pecans for pinenuts, and swapped the Karo Dark syrup for honey.  (Or, a British treacle tart, if we substituted walnuts and Lyle's Golden Syrup.)  I never asked if that's what they did, I just resolved to test that theory, and then years went by, and I decided it would be a great experiment for the blog.

So here we go, my attempt to make the pine nut tart I had at the Olive, a very, very long time ago.  (Also, note this is still kind of a rescued recipe, since this dish is no longer on the menu.  I only ever saw it the one time.  I would guess that the issue here was cost.  Pine nuts are about the most expensive nut there is, and desserts at the Olive are usually like $6-7, so I gotta imagine this was a loss leader.  Maybe just something a pastry chef wanted to try, always understanding it would never become a key player.  I mean, this is all conjecture.)

So anyway, I had a go at making one, and the results were fantastic!

The Crust: I used the short dough method from baking instructor Bo Friberg's inimitable The Professional Pastry Chef, which is a gigantic and expensive book ($50+) that you won't really use more than 10% of the recipes in it, but having said that, if you are an aspiring pastry professional, and you don't have this book, it's not our problem. 

The formula, adapted to make a single tart, was 400g butter, 85g sugar, half a beaten egg, 1/2 t vanilla, and 245g flour.  All ingredients room temp.  Beat everything but the flour with the paddle until smooth.  Beat in the flour until just combined.  Refrigerate until ready to roll.  Roll out, put into a sprayed false-bottomed, fluted tart pan, trim overhand with rolling pin.  Do not blind-bake.

The Filling: I got lazy and pulled a quick ratio off the internet.  1 C. Karo (or, in this case, honey), 3 eggs, 1 oz. butter (melted), 1 t. vanilla, and 1.5 C pecans (or, in this case, pine nuts).  Pour all into an unbaked pie shell and bake 60-70', at 350F.

The Results: Really, pretty awesome.  The filling worked perfectly.  Maybe, maybe, it would have been nicer with 1/4-1/2 cup fewer nuts, so you got more of that gooey layer underneath the nut layer, but I can't complain.  Check it out:

The other change I might have made is that I used Friberg's short dough recipe, which is basically pate sucree, or, in English, shortbread cookie dough.  The filling was really, really sweet, so maybe pate brisee (European butter crust) would have been a better choice.  Wasn't bad at all, but it was a little overwhelming.  Not a pie you want a second slice of.  It was basically like eating a candy bar in a cookie crust.  Then again, these are criticisms you can level at pecan pie as well, and if you don't like pecan pie, you're dead to me.  Or, at least, it's time for you to go read a different post.  Lame-o.

The Possibilities: The big takeaway for me from this recipe was that as of now, pecan pie (like gumbo, like sausage, like grilled cheese) is no longer a recipe, it's a formula.  Variables can be swapped out with equivalents.  After all, I knew all about pecan pie, and then there was treacle tart, and then there was this!  Where else can we go, with the syrup/nut formula?

-Walnuts and Maple Syrup

-Marcona Almonds and Honey

-Cane Syrup and Pecans (or, i dunno, Cashews?  Or why not Mixed Nuts?)

But then, think about this.  There's LOTS of syrups out there.  Plus, any fruit juice can be cooked to a syrup.  Just figure out the brix of corn syrup, then pull out your refractometer (not that I have one), and start experimenting.  Seriously, the possibilities are limitless!

-Cook concord grapes to a syrup, and add peanuts, for the perfect PBJ pie.

-Mix 80/20 honey and pomegranate molasses, and then use pistachios!

-Or go honey with 50/50 walnuts and pistachios for a baklava tart!

-Or how about we get real weird, and do pineapple syrup with macademia nuts, and serve it with a scoop of coconut sorbet?

-Or how about this: take maple syrup, infuse it with coffee, and then make a tart with hazelnuts!  It would taste like Frangelico pie!!!

I'm getting too excited.  I need to go lie down.  Chances of me buying a refractometer are approaching 100% with alarming rapidity.

-JS