This last week seemed to be the longest, slowest week, so when I saw Marie's weekly round-up on Friday (as it was in Australia) I was surprised to find it wasn't still Wednesday. Yes, I really missed the boat on posting about this recipe. It was such a tiring week that I have to confess that the Hungarian Raisin Walnut tartlets were not put together with a lot of care.
They turned out pretty well, all things considered. The eggy filling is really delicious - I could have drunk it with a straw - although it was pretty sweet combined with the sultanas and walnuts, and the tartlets were quite large. I liked these best when they were warmed through and drizzled (saturated) with cream, when they tasted more like a pudding. I was surprised they didn't have any spices in them (since they're part of the Hungarian Christmas repertoire) and I guess you could try some cinnamon and nutmeg.
No prizes for this pastry work but luckily Rose's pastry is slapdash-proof. I'm not sure why but I found the flavour of the pastry really came into its own when combined with this filling.
These are sultanas, which are not raisins in Australia but seem to be raisins in the U.S. This Easter I made Kulich (Russian Easter bread) from a Canadian recipe which specified raisins. I wasn't sure what to use so I put in Australian raisins (which refer to the largest, sweet dried grapes) and they were really too big and sweet - I should have used sultanas. So I used sultanas here and I think it was the right decision.
I was happy to be using walnuts again since I had such a big bag of them which is gradually whittling away and freeing up some fridge space.
The tarts are very easy to put together, especially when you ignore the complicated instructions for preparing the walnuts and just roast them, crush them a bit with your hands and throw them in. The filling is also very easy-care and I just used the stick blender to mix it (so lazy was I feeling).
I over-filled the tarts (even though Rose warns us not to let the filling leak under the pastry) but I baked these in a silicone mould so they weren't difficult to remove. I do recommend putting less filling into the moulds, if you're going to try them.
I found the muffin-size tarts to be a little overwhelming after a couple of bites so I tried them in mince pie-size. Despite overfilling them also (so they leaked all over the oven) they turned out nicely and provided just the right combination of sweetness and pastry for me. I sifted some icing sugar over them mince-pie style and it felt a little bit like Christmas.
Next up we're making Rugelach.
Some weeks are just like that....I didn't know there is a special pan for mince pies. I can see how the ratio of crust to filling would be nice. Love your idea of pouring cream over them. I was thinking these could be adapted to all sorts of different combinations of fruit and nuts. Really sorry I bunged up the pie crust after seeing yours here.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to make these! My husband has been impatiently waiting. I think i would prefer mince pie size, too.
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