go in with your hands!

This is a glorious tart crust to make because as you  mould the pastry with your hands the oils give you the best hand moisturizing treatment ever! The pastry is malleable and lends itself to being pushed around, meanwhile you don’t need to worry about rolling out pastry. 

How To

Make one quantity of Walnut & Olive Oil Pastry

Place the pastry ball in the centre of a 23cm flan case with a movable base. 

Start in the middle and flatten the ball into a disc.  Slowly and surely just keep pressing the pastry working from the centre so that it covers the base.  If you think there will not be enough for the sides then your pastry is too thick – press from the centre to create a sufficient amount of pastry that will be pressed up the sides.

Once you have enough pastry to create the sides you can push the pastry to create the rim

Just press down the excess pastry over the edges to create a neat edge

The tart crust is almost ready for baking

Prick with a fork to ensure that the pastry does not bubble and bloat in the oven

 

Now scrunch up a piece of baking paper (the scrunching is important because it softens the paper and allows it to reach into the corner) and un scrunch it. Now use it to line the case and fill with your blind baking “beans”. These can be purpose made ceramic baking balls or rice or small real beans/lentils (which i quite like) or salt which makes for a great snug fit but if you spill it…your tart is ruined!

Now add the beans 

 

Now bake the case with the beans inside for 10-15 minutes – just until the pastry has “set” ie gone hard.  Then remove the beans.

Paint the case on the inside with a beaten egg – this waterproofs the tart.  Its not absolutely essential but will really make your tart base “crunch” and will make it easier to serve.

Bake again for 5 minutes and the tart is now ready to be used.