The Best Caramel Nuts Tart Recipe

This delicious Caramel Nuts Tart is so irresistible. A homemade rich buttery sweet crust is topped with caramelized crunchy nut filling made with toasted mixed nuts and sweetened condensed caramel sauce, easy-to-make a mouth-watering treat for all times and will make also a great gift for sharing.

How do you make this caramel nuts tart?

This caramel nut tart is one of the easiest tarts you can make. You start by making the pastry dough and then blind-baking the pastry crust. While the crust is cooling, make the caramel nut filling and then fill the crust with the filling and bake again. And finish by drizzling some honey syrup, if you like.

The components of Caramel Nuts tart

This crunchy caramel nuts tart consists of 3 components.

1. Sweet tart crust
2. Caramel nut filling
3. Honey syrup glaze

Steps to make Caramel Nut tart

1. Make the sweet pastry dough
2. Partially bake (par-bake) the crust
3. Toast the nuts
4. Prepare the caramel nut filling
5. Fill the par-baked crust with the filling and bake
6. Brush with honey glaze

You Might Also Like

BEST & EASY! Strawberry Tart Recipe-This restaurant-style strawberry tart looks fancy and complicated but you can make it easily at home.

1. Making the Sweet Tart Crust

The first thing we’ll start with is the tart crust. In this recipe, I used a sweet tart crust known as Pâte Sucrée in French, a great pastry for making any tart.

A homemade tart crust is much better in flavor, texture, freshness, and quality than a store-bought one. Making tart crust from scratch is actually really easy and you can make it in advance, however, it needs plenty of time to chill and set.

Ingredients & substitutions

• Butter: Use unsalted butter softened at room temperature, but not melted
• Sugar: Preferably powdered sugar. Substitute with fine-granulated sugar
• Egg: A large egg at room temperature (Use only half)
• Flour: All-Purpose Flour or plain flour, sifted
• Almond meal: Adding an almond meal is optional. Substitute with an equivalent weight of flour
• Salt: Add a pinch of salt to boost the flavors
• Flavor: vanilla extract, lemon zest, almond extract, etc. (optional)

Steps to Make Crust

1. Cream the butter and sugar
2. Add the egg and beat to incorporate
3. Add flour and almond meal and mix until a dough forms
4. Press dough evenly into the tart pan and trim off the edges.
5. Blind Bake in a preheated oven until lightly brown
6. Cool on a rack

Make-Ahead Tart Crust

You can make this tart crust ahead of time, before or after it is baked.

Raw Tart Dough: You can refrigerate it for up to 5 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. Cover tightly with two layers of plastic wrap then set inside a freezer-safe zip bag, remove excess air before freezing.
To Thaw – place frozen tart dough in the refrigerator overnight before and let it sit at room temperature just until it’s softened enough to roll and press into the tart pan. 

Baked Tart Crust: The baked tart crust can be covered and kept at room temperature for a week or so. You can also freeze it for up to 6 months. Cover with two layers of plastic wrap then put inside a freezer-safe zip bag.
To Thaw – place the frozen tart in the refrigerator overnight and let it come to room temperature before filling. 

How to Blind-Bake the Crust?

Blind baking is simply pre-baking your crust before adding the filling. You may need to bake it partially for some tart recipes or bake it completely for others.

The partially baked crust requires a shorter baking time than the fully baked crust because the crust will be fully baked after adding the filling to the partially baked crust. Partially baking prevents the tart crust from becoming soggy making it crisp.

Using pie weights

Because the pastry dough puffs up and shrinks away from the edge of the tart pan during baking, pie weights are used to weigh down the bottom of the tart. You can use dried beans or uncooked rice instead of pie weights.

2. Making the Caramel Nuts Filling

 Mixed Nuts

Whenever I make this nut tart I tend to vary what nuts I use, just I use whatever is available. That means you can use pretty much any nuts of your choice such as almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, macadamia, walnuts, and pistachios.

In this recipe, I also used some coarsely ground nuts to improve the taste and texture of the filling. You can make ground nuts by grinding your choice of toasted nuts in a food processor.

Caramel Sauce

I used sweetened condensed milk, butter, and sugar to make a simple caramel sauce. The sauce will harden as it cools, so make sure to mix the nuts when it is still warm, and then pour the caramelized nuts over the tart crust quickly before it cools.

3. Make the Honey Syrup Glaze

You can skip the glaze but it adds an extra layer of flavor and the glossy finish looks very professional. I used a honey syrup glaze but you can also use apricot or apple jam for a clear glaze. 

Heat the honey, or jam in a small saucepan along with about a tablespoon of water until it liquefies. You can also dissolve honey or jam in hot water. Pour the glaze through a wire mesh strainer and into a small bowl to remove any bits of fruit if you use jam.

the best pan for making Caramel Nuts Tart

I used an 18 cm aluminum tart pan with a removable bottom as it helps you remove the tart from the pan easily without breaking it. I haven’t used non-stick tart pans, however, it seems the tart crust shrinkage is less when using an aluminum tart pan compared to the non-stick tart pan.

How to remove the tart from the pan

To remove the outer ring, place the tart over a cup or glass that is narrower than the ring and gently pull down the outer ring to remove it. You can then slide a knife gently around the base to help the tart slide off the base easily or serve it on the base.

Tips for making Caramel nuts tart

INGREDIENTS

• Gather your ingredients before you begin. 
• Let the ingredients come to room temperature.
• Adding an almond meal is optional but it enhances both taste and texture and also reduces the amount of gluten in the pastry, so less shrinking when baking.

The crust

• Over-kneading the dough will develop too much gluten.
• So work quickly as it makes a lighter pastry.
• The dough must be completely chilled before using it.
• And the chilling time after rolling and lining the pan is also important.
• Chilling allows the gluten in the dough to relax, giving you less shrinkage and fewer cracks in the finished tart shell.
• Bake the tart in a preheated oven.
• You can make one large tart with the dough. Use any leftovers for making tartlets or cookies.

Delicious CHEESECAKE RECIPES

I am a big fan of cheesecake and I have tried pretty much many cheesecake recipes. I have shared several cheesecake recipes on this blog and many more to come…

The Best Caramel Nuts Tart
Step-by-Step Recipe

Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 40 mins
Servings: 6 to 8 slices

Ingredients

For the Crust (18 cm to 20 cm)

• 60 g butter, softened
• 50 g fine granulated sugar or powdered sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten (use only 1/2)
• 120 g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
• 20 g almond Flour (or plain flour)
• A pinch of salt
• A dash of vanilla extract

For the Filling

• 40 g unsalted butter
• 40 g brown sugar
• 50 ml water
• 60 g condensed milk
• a pinch of salt
• 50 g ground nuts
• 150 g mixed nuts

For the Glaze

• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon hot water

Instruction

Preparation

• Gather all the ingredients, and let them come to room temperature
• Cut the butter into small cubes
• Crack the egg into a small bowl and beat lightly
• Sift the flour and mix it with almond meal

Lightly butter the tart pan. I used an 18 cm aluminum tart pan with a removable bottom as it helps you remove the tart from the pan and serve it without breaking it.

Make the Crust

In a bowl, first, cream the butter on medium-high speed until smooth for 1 minute.

Add sugar and cream it together on high speed for 2 minutes or until creamy and smooth. Stop as soon as smooth, no need to beat a lot of air into the mixture.

Add half of the egg mixture and beat until incorporated.

Use a rubber spatula to scrap down the sides of the bowl.

Add flour and an almond meal. Slowly mix until flour is evenly moistened. Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together to avoid overworking the pastry.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes as it helps to handle the dough easily.

Transfer the pastry dough onto a large sheet of baking paper or plastic wrap. Work very lightly to form a smooth ball.

Place a second sheet of baking paper over it then roll the dough gently into a small circle. Place the rolled pastry over a flat tray and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour. Overnight works too.

Once the dough has chilled, take it out from the fridge. Let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly for easy rolling.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough about 2 cm bigger than the size of your baking pan. Place the tart pan you will use over the rolled pastry to check that it is rolled large enough.

The pastry is soft and easy to roll but try not to roll it too thin or it will be hard to line the pan and the pastry will tend to crack once baked.

Peel off the top sheet of plastic wrap, then carefully lift the dough into your tart pan and place it back on. That is the easiest way to transfer the dough from the counter to the pan.

Gently but firmly and evenly press the dough onto the bottom and sides of the pan. Remove the second sheet of plastic wrap. Make sure the pastry is pressed tightly against the edges to avoid shrinking in the oven.

Trim off the excess dough either by running your rolling pin over the edges, or cutting it off with a sharp knife. If there are any cracks, patch them up with your fingers with some excess dough. Place back in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours. Cover it with plastic wrap so that the pastry doesn’t dry out.

Par-Bake the Crust

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and place the rack in the center. Gently poke the crust with a fork. This step is called docking and it allows the steam to escape so that the crust doesn’t puff up in the oven.

When the oven is ready, cover the dough with a sheet of parchment paper large enough to cover the base. And then fill with pie weights, dried beans, or uncooked rice. Make sure they are evenly distributed over the entire surface, not just scattering.

Bake the tart shell for 10 minutes, then remove the parchment paper and weight and continue baking for another 5 to 10 minutes until the bottom of the crust feels dry to the touch.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

While the tart crust cools, make the filling

Arrange nuts in an even layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 150°C, stirring occasionally, until evenly toasted, 10 minutes.

Bring butter, sugar, and condensed milk to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and cook for 5 minutes until thickened slightly stirring occasionally.

First, stir ground nuts into the caramel.

Then remove the pan from heat. Quickly, stir in toasted nuts with a wooden spoon.

Quickly, pour it over the par-baked crust. Bake it at 170℃ for 10 to 15 mins until golden brown.

Make the Glaze

Dissolve the honey with hot water in a small bowl to make honey syrup glaze. Drizzle it over the nuts while still warm. Cool completely, and remove the tart from the pan.

Serve & Enjoy!

The Best Caramel Nuts Tart Recipe

Thank you for being here, I appreciate it!
I love hearing from you so feel free to leave a comment on the post
If you make any of my recipes, I’d love to see pics of your creations
 #joyofeatingtheworld or  @joyofeatingtheworld

MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES