tarts! tarts! tarts!

I have always love tarts
egg tars
fruit tart
nut tarts
cream tart
choc tart

however the only problem with these delicious tarts are the case itself
i think its more of being afraid of doing it
its always tedious and very time consuming
I went to sydney and had this amazing walnut tart and craving for it
so obviously i had to do it. i have not found a walnut tart just like that around melb.

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

so my only challenge was to look for a oh-so-simple-but-foolproof tart case recipe
i found in smittenkitchen.com with a great unshrinkable sweet tart shell
its a basic method however it require a 2 hour fridge set to the dough.

i am not going to put in her tart shell recipe (trying not to get into trouble here) :) so just click on her website or the link.

She had a walnut tart recipe as well but hers require a baking process which i do not want. i wanted a quick pour and yummy mini tartlets. also i didnt want my caramel to be bubbling and pouring out of the shell and making a mess in my oven. So i had to look for a caramel recipe. It seams that most recipe requires a lot (and when i mean a lot - 4 cups of sugar lot lot!!) so yes. i dicided to make my own caramel.


Mini Caramel Walnut Tartlets



1 recipe Great Unshrinkable Sweet Tart Shell by SmittenKitchen.com, cook as directed

Fillings:
2 1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup water
2 table spoon honey
2 table spoon golden syrup
1 cup thicken cream
800g walnut

1. Bake tart in 12 muffin tray until brown and put aside to cool
2. Meanwhile heat sugar and water in a small sauce pan until melt in low heat
3. when sugar has melted turn the heat up. Sugar will start to bubble. wipe sides of the pan with baking brush regularly
4. as the sugar thickens, and changes colour, pour in honey and golden syrup and boil for 5-7 minutes.
5. pour in cream and remove from heat when it starts to boil.
6. pop in couple of walnuts into each shells (half full)
7. pour in a spoonfull of the hot caramel into the half-filled-walnut-shell.
8. fill the shells up with the remaining walnut into the shells. then pout in the remaining caramel
9. leave the tart to cool. preferbly in the fridge.
10. eat

I think with all of the tart making process- this shell is worth it. It was messy at first having to roll the dough to fit into the muffin tray. When eating, tart seams less crumbly then usual which is great. We had the tartlets without haviing to allow the caramel to set- which result in a very messy tea session (inclusive of Xiu licking the plate)
I love the caramel being not too sweet. and the thing with caramel you cant really taste it-it will burn your tongue! so its more towards instinct.

I can tell you a heads up. if you are not a baker-this recipe is gonna take the whole day and heaps of patience.
Worth it? hell yeah.