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Recipe Detail Page
Walnut Pastry
Early Summer 2013
This delicate, buttery, walnut crust can be made a day ahead. Use it as a substitute in your favourite desserts, turning them into walnut-crusted apple pie, walnut banana cream pie and walnut chocolate tart.
Makes one 9-inch (23-cm) pie shell
1¼ cups (310 mL) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (60 mL) walnut pieces, toasted, finely ground
½ tsp (2 mL) salt
½ tsp (2 mL) sugar
½ cup (125 mL) cold, salted butter, cut into cubes
1 tbsp (15 mL) cold water
1 tsp (5 mL) apple cider vinegar
1 Using your fingertips, rub flour with walnuts, salt, sugar and cold butter in a medium bowl until the mixture looks like oat flakes and sticks together when squeezed. Drizzle in cold water and vinegar. Gather together into a ball and press into disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2 Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
3 Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, until 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. Lift pastry into a 9-inch (23-cm) fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press in pastry and trim around the edges using a knife. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Cover with parchment and fill with dried beans or pie weights.
4 Bake for 20 minutes. Remove beans and parchment and return pie shell to oven. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to rack and let cool. Save the beans for the next time you require pie weights, as the beans can no longer be eaten.
Makes one 9-inch (23-cm) pie shell
