Baking secrets: Walnut tarts steals spotlight from ooh-too-sweet pecan pie
Classic pecan pie generally takes center stage on our Thanksgiving sweet table. My husband adores this Southern specialty that elegantly bakes pecans into a sugary pie filling. Yet I find it way too sweet with sugar ruling the recipe. A dessert design flaw for sure.
This year I got the green light to craft a Thanksgiving dessert that combines everything Michael loves about pecan pie into an after-dinner treat that doesn't shock my taste buds with overwhelming sweetness. Before heading off to the test kitchen, I sketched out my plan for culinary alterations: flavor the crust, right size the filling and infuse a savory balance to the taste.
Most of us associate pie with Thanksgiving, but it occurred to me that its European cousin, the tart, could be welcome at our dessert tables. What this demure pastry lacks in height, it more than makes up for in breadth as standard removable-bottom tart pans measure almost a foot across.
A buttery tart shell provides a lower profile crust for the sweet filling with the bonus of not having to roll out pie dough. And let's be honest; homemade pie dough gives most bakers a moment's pause before they reach for the rolling pin.
Keeping with a harvest theme, I warmed the buttery crust with ground cinnamon and nutmeg. A light touch of powdered sugar provides background sweetness that enhances the spice notes and gently softens the texture. Egg yolk adds moisture and keeps the crumbs from firmly becoming dough.
My complaint with pecan pie filling isn't the sweetness per se, but that the amount of gooey goodness overpowers the crust and nuts. Some recipes result in a gelatinlike filling so sparsely topped with chopped pecans that they don't belong in any holiday dessert spread in my book.
Basic pecan pie recipes combine eggs, corn syrup and sugar into a filling you can easily slice and serve. I didn't want to change the culinary dynamics of the filling, just infuse a savory edge to balance the sweetness. Bourbon (or rum) steps in for the vanilla extract bringing powerful background flavors. Dark brown sugar adds molasses, further deepening the savory notes.
For the nuts, tradition might call for pecans but I opted for walnuts that offer more savory punch against sugar than pecans. Boasting a light color, walnuts bake into a compatible hue with the crust. This means any imperfections in the finished tart visually blend into an appealing dessert.
means any imperfections in the finished tart visually blend into an appealing dessert.
With my plan in place, my first test baked a tart with sweetness nicely in check but a soggy crust.
Chilling the shell and then pre-baking before adding the liquidy filling, set the crust along with drying the texture.
Adding salt to the filling firmed the boundary between sweet and savory and increasing melted butter to ¼ cup smoothed the finished texture and complemented the toasted walnut flavors.
This Thanksgiving try my Spiced Walnut Tart: it's easier than pie with a sweetness all will enjoy.
Ÿ Annie Overboe, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, lives in Villa Park. Write her at food@dailyherald.com.