You're just three steps (and three ingredients) away from the most drool-worthy and decadent tart. Sweetened condensed milk, roasted hazelnuts and short crust pastry is all it makes to whip up an autumnal showstopper.
From the brain of Bevan Smith, chef at Oamaru's Riverstone Kitchen, this oh-so impressive tart is perfect to impress a crowd (or scoff at home, of course).
Buy a packet of premade sweet short crust pastry, or use Bevan's recipe below to make your own.
Ingredients
| 1 packet | sweet short crust pastry, blind baked in a large fluted tart tin with a removeable base (see recipe below to make your own pastry) |
| 3 x 395g cans | condensed milk |
| 2 cups | roasted hazelnuts, skins removed |
Directions
- Place cans of condensed milk into a medium-sized pot, cover with water and bring to the boil. Boil for 2 hours, replenishing the water as it reduces to keep the cans covered. (It is very important to ensure that the pot does not go dry as the cans may go pop and cover your kitchen in caramel!) Remove from heat and allow to cool completely in the water before opening.
- Preheat oven to 160°C. Spoon caramelised condensed milk, in even blobs, into the cooked tart case. Use the back of the spoon to spread the caramel around the tart case but take care not to damage the fragile pastry as you do so.
- Sprinkle with hazelnuts and gently press down on the nuts to push them slightly into the caramel. Place in the oven and cook for 45 minutes until caramel just starts to brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before serving.
Bevan's sweet short crust pastry
Makes 1 x 28cm pastry case
Ingredients
90g unsalted butter, softened
40g icing sugar
1 free-range egg yolk
125g plain flour
½ Tbsp cold water
Directions
1. Place all ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until the pastry comes together to form a soft dough.
2. Turn out onto a floured bench and knead lightly. Roll dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. Pastry can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.
3. To blind bake: Preheat oven to 180C. Line the base of a 28cm fluted tart tin with removable base with baking paper. Unwrap pastry, slice thinly and press into tart tin. Ensure pastry is evenly and thinly spread, about 2mm thick. Line with a piece of baking paper. Fill with baking beans and blind bake for 20-25minutes. Remove paper and baking beans and return to the oven for a further 3-5 minutes, so the base is fully cooked.
Top tip: To blind bake pastry, crumple baking paper into a ball before smoothing paper out over pastry base and covering with baking beans. This allows the paper to push into all the corners.
Edited extract from Riverstone Kitchen Modern-Day Classics © Bevan Smith, $44.99 RRP (distributed by Upstart Press). Photography by Emma Willetts
