Walnut pie is a speciality from several French regions, each region having its own version.
Here I propose a pie with shortcrust dough, walnut filling, and caramelised walnuts on top.
If you are nuts about nuts, this recipe is for you!
Walnut pie
Ingredients
- 200 g walnut kernels
- 25 cl liquid sour cream
- 160 g sugar cane
- 180 g flour I use a mix of 20 g of hazelnut flour and 160 g all purposes flour
- 40 g almond powder
- 3 eggs
- 70 g soft butter
- 1 tbsp rhum or almond extract
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Pour the flour with a pinch of salt, into a bowl.
- Cut the soft butter into small cubes.
- Mix the butter and flour with your fingertips until they form a sandy texture.
- Add 20 g almond powder, 10 g sugar and mix again.
- Then add 1 egg and mix with a spatula.
- Finish by hand to form a ball of dough.
- Cover with a cloth and leave to rest.
Preparation of the walnut filling
- Coarsely blend 100g of walnuts in a chopper or blender. Do not grind them into a fine powder but rather break the kernels into several pieces.
- Beat the 2 eggs and the remaining 20g of almond powder with 50g of sugar in a bowl. Optionally add the cream for extra smoothness.
- Add the rum (or almond) and the nuts and mix vigorously with a spatula.
Preparation of the pie
- Roll out your pie crust.
- Line a pie tin covered with baking paper with the pastry.
- Prick the pastry with a fork.
- Pour the walnut mixture on top.
- Bake the tart for 35 to 40 minutes at 180°C. Check if it’s cooked with the tip of a knife.
- Once cooked, remove the tart from the tin and leave it to cool on a wire rack.
Preparation of the caramel
- While the pie is cooking, prepare a caramel. First, place the remaining walnuts on a baking tray covered with baking paper (you can crush them a bit into large pieces).
- Pour the remaining 100 g of sugar into a stainless steel pan and pour 6 cl of cold water over it, making sure to soak all the sugar.
- Bring everything to the boil over low to medium heat.
- Once the sugar has completely dissolved, watch for the first bubbles to appear.
- Leave to cook for a further 3 minutes and turn off the heat to avoid burning the caramel.
- Immediately pour the caramel over the walnut kernels, stirring a little if necessary, and leave to harden for about 20 minutes.
- Then cover your tart with the caramelised nuts… and enjoy!
Notes
I like to add a few hazelnuts and almonds to the walnuts and to caramelise the whole thing for an even more delicious tart, like a “squirrel tart” 🙂