I love the subtlety rosemary can add to a dessert. Added carefully it can be delicious and after a first trying it in an outrageously scrumptious recipe which included a vat of stewed sweet apricots and some crunchy textured crumble, pine nuts were inevitably due to work. This is a cross between a pecan pie with pine nuts and a treacle tart. Served at the end of a recent dinner party topped with a chocolate sorbet, it was a winner.
Sweet pastry
- 250g plain flour
- 50g sifted icing sugar
- 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 egg, beaten
- Splash milk
Filling
- 150g pine nuts
- 2 eggs
- 75g unsalted butter, cubed
- 100g runny honey
- 100g soft brown sugar
- ½ vanilla pod, seeds removed OR 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 small sprigs of rosemary (optional)
- Make you pastry by rubbing the flour and icing sugar into the butter to form a breadcrumb texture. Add the egg and a splash of milk to bring it together to form a soft dough but make sure you are gentle. Wrap in cling and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Next, line 6 small or 1 large tart tin and bake blind (see here to do this)
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- In a large frying pan over medium high heat, toast your pine nuts until fragrant and golden. Leave to cool.
- Add the honey and rosemary sprigs to a saucepan and heat gently over a low heat until warm and runny. All the honey to sit on a low heat for a good 10 minutes to let the rosemary infuse
- Then remove and reserve the rosemary. Then whisk in the cubed butter until melted.
- In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla until combined.
- Strip the leaves from the reserved rosemary and chopped very finely to get about 1 tsp or less of the leaves and add back to the honey and butter (optional). Whisk the butter and honey mix into the egg and sugar mixture.
- Now, space your pre-baked tart cases out onto a lined baking tray and sprinkle the pine nuts amongst the cases. Make sure you keep the tart case inside its metal tin (unlike I did) as this will add extra support for the thick mixture.
- Fill with the honey mixture evenly and bake for 18-20 minutes until set. Remove and leave to cool and set.
(The first time I did this, I took the tart cases out their metal tins and the sides collapsed (disaster) so I strongly recommend leaving them in the tins to add support for the heavy honey mixture) Served with a generous and glossy scoop of chocolate sorbet, they were the perfect finish to a lovely dinner party.
