Quince & Walnut Tart Recipe - By Sam

This recipe was published in "Australian Country Style" Magazine in July 2005. The recipe as published required desicated coconut, which I am not particularly fond of, so I have substituted fresh grated apple instead. It also asked for vanilla essence - but vanilla paste works better. Their recipe recommended using a very fashionable (overly expensive) rectangular tart dish, but I prefer to use my everyday 25cm pie dish instead.

I have successfully made a few of my own variations:

Strawberry Jam & Hazelnut (also works with Blackberry or Blueberry Jam)
Apricot Jam & Almond

For the strawberry variation I also added sliced fresh strawberries between the jam and pie topping

Ingredients:
Shortcrust pastry
1 cup walnuts (approx 100g)
60g butter, chopped and at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla paste
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup grated apple (1 whole small apple, cored and peeled)
100g quince paste
pure icing sugar, for dusting (optional)


Preheat oven to 180c

Grease dish, line bottom and sides of dish with pasty and blind bake (approx 10 minutes at 180c). Allow to cool.

Process the walnuts until the texture of coarse breadcrumbs (one advantage with the variations suggested above is you can buy pre-prepared hazelnut meal or almond meal at the supermarket). Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy, add the vanilla, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the apple and ground walnuts.

Spread the quince paste evenly over the cooled pastry base. Spoon over the walnut mixture and smooth.

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Dust liberally with icing sugar to serve.

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