Image is for illustrative purposes only.
This is the classic Engadine walnut filling: sugar taken to a light caramel, softened with warm cream and honey, boiled to 115°C and finished with dried walnuts. It sets to a thick, chewy caramel that stays soft enough to cut cleanly and tastes of toffee, honey and toasted nuts.
It is made for nut tarts, where the filling is enclosed between two layers of sweet shortcrust, but it is just as good spooned warm over a sponge layer, used as a filling for baton pastries, or set and cut into squares. Because it is cooked to a set temperature it keeps very well and does not weep into pastry.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
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Weight Per Unit: 1550
Number of Units: 1
Unit Size: batch of about 1.3 kg, enough to fill a 24 cm nut tart with some left over
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WEIGHT
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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500 |
17.6 ounces
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
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B
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500 |
2.1 cups
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Rich Cream
Rich cream, sometimes sold as double or extra-thick cream, is a cream with a much higher fat content than ordinary thickened cream, usually around 45 to 50 per cent. The extra fat makes it whip very firm and hold its shape well, so a little of it gives body and stability to a lighter cream.
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warmed |
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C
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50 |
1.8 ounces
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Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers.
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D
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500 |
17.6 ounces
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Walnut Pieces
Walnut pieces are shelled walnut kernels broken into rough chunks. They are sold ready-chopped and are cheaper than whole halves, which makes them ideal for folding through cake batters where the nuts are not on show.
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dried and lightly toasted |
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1550
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
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STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
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STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Spread D (walnut pieces) on a tray and dry them in a 150°C (300°F) oven for about 10 minutes, then keep them warm. Warm B (cream) in a small saucepan. |
Nuts dry and fragrant but not dark; cream hot, not boiling |
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2 |
Caramelise |
Melt A (caster sugar) in a heavy, wide pan over medium heat, adding it a little at a time and letting each addition melt before adding more. |
Even light brown caramel, no undissolved crystals and no burnt patches |
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3 |
Add |
Take the pan off the heat and pour in the warm B (cream) in a slow stream, stirring constantly. Stand back, as it will steam and bubble up. |
Caramel dissolved back into a smooth sauce |
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4 |
Boil |
Add C (honey), return the pan to the heat and boil the mixture, stirring, until it reaches 115°C (240°F) on a sugar thermometer. |
Thick, glossy and pale amber at 115°C |
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5 |
Fold |
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the warm dried D (walnut pieces) so every piece is coated. |
Nuts evenly suspended in the caramel |
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6 |
Cool |
Pour the filling into a tray or bowl and leave it to cool. Use it while still soft and spreadable, or warm it gently before using if it has set firm. |
Thick, sliceable caramel that holds its shape |
Important Notes
The full commercial batch starts at 15.5 kg and cooks down to about 13 kg, which the chef portioned as 15 fillings of about 866 g each "AND" that is roughly one 24 cm nut tart per portion. The home batch here gives about 1.3 kg. Cook to 115°C exactly: below that the filling stays runny and soaks into pastry, above it the caramel goes hard once cold. Store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to two weeks and warm gently to soften before use. The chef also noted trying a version with 10% glucose replacing some of the sugar, which gives a softer, less crystalline caramel if you want to test it.
Tools & Arrangements
Heavy-based wide saucepan, sugar thermometer, small saucepan for the cream, wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, baking tray for drying the nuts, shallow tray or bowl for cooling.
