Caramel Nut Tart
on Nov 01, 2018, Updated Nov 12, 2024
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This caramel nut tart is crunchy, salty and gooey in the best way. Adding ground cinnamon to the dough gives it even more wonderful flavor. I use a bag of mixed nuts and stir that into a batch of homemade caramel for the filling. This tart is an elegant fall dessert worthy of get-togethers and holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas.
If you are looking for a quicker and more simple dessert with both cinnamon and nuts, try these pecan cinnamon bar cookies.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Carmel and nuts are classic for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are fall ingredients that take you from October/November through the end of the year. They are familiar flavors that are a wonderful way to finish a special family meal.
While I love a double-crust pie for the holidays, a tart is the same level of a showstopper with far easier assembly. There’s no lattice to weave with the dough, so if you are unsure about your decorative pastry skills, this one is for you.
You can freeze the leftovers. Even though a dessert may be incredible, every last bite doesn’t always get eaten. Just freeze slices of this tart and let them thaw at room temperature to enjoy them again.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Mixed nuts: The easiest thing to do is to buy a bag of salted roasted mixed nuts. They usually have a mix of almonds, pecans, cashews, pecans, pistachios and Brazil nuts. If you don’t like a certain type of nuts or love another one, you can make your own mix. This is where you can customize your filling. I like to throw in some pumpkin seeds from my pantry.
- Granulated sugar: There is a quarter cup sugar in the lightly sweet tart shell, and it, along with water, is the starting point for making the caramel.
- Unsalted butter: It is important that the butter for the dough is chilled because that gives the tart crust some flakiness. Also, toward the end of making the caramel, you drop in a couple cubes of butter.
- Honey rounds out the sweetness of the caramel, and gives it some complexity.
- Heavy cream adds richness and thickness to the caramel.
- Cinnamon gives the tart shell that wonderful, fragrant fall/holiday flavor.
- Flour: The base of the dough is all-purpose flour.
- Egg: There is 1 large egg in the tart dough.
- Vanilla extract gives the dough and caramel subtle vanilla flavor. Always use pure vanilla extract and not imitation.
- Salt: Like most baked goods, I include a touch of kosher salt, which is the on-switch for the ingredients in both sweet and savory recipes.
How To Make This Caramel Nut Tart
1. Mix the dry ingredients in a food processor. That includes the flour, cinnamon, salt and sugar.
2. Pulse the butter with the dry ingredients. It should look crumbly.
3. Add the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Mix until the dough starts to clump. Stop before it becomes a ball.
5. Pat the dough into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least 1 hour up to 3 days. This is a good stopping point for the recipe, if you want to make the dough in advance.
6. Roll out the dough. First lightly sprinkle your work surface with flour. Then roll the dough into a rough circle about 12 inches in diameter and 1/8-inch-thick. Then gently place the dough over the pan and lightly smooth it across the bottom and up the sides, trimming the overhang. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork. Freeze for 30 minutes.
7. Bake the shell. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line the dough with aluminum foil and fill with dried beans, rice or pie weights. Bake for 25 minutes until the shell starts to turn light brown. Remove the foil and weights and bake for another 10 minutes.
8. Make the caramel. Put the granulated sugar and water in a medium pot with high sides over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring the caramel to a boil without stirring. You can gently swirl the pan especially when it starts to brown. Take it off the heat when it turns a deep amber color. Then whisk in the heavy cream, butter, honey and vanilla extract. Stir in the nuts into the caramel.
9. Pour the caramel-nut filling into the crust.
10. Bake the tart. It will just need 15-20 minutes and you will see the filling bubble. Cool on a wire rack before serving. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Serving
Bookmark this recipe for Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can serve the tart warm or at room temperature on its own. You also can go a la mode and pair each slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Storage & Freezing
You can keep the tart at room temperature up to 2 days. Cover it with plastic wrap or foil or put it in an airtight container. If you want to serve it warm, reheat it in a 300-degree oven for a few minutes.
When I freeze the tart, I like to cut it into slices, that makes it faster to thaw when it is just a portion size. I will say that a slice thaws pretty quickly, about 15 minutes, once you take it out of the freezer. You can freeze it up to 1 month.
Recipe Tips
- The butter needs to be cold when you make the dough. This is not like when you cream butter and sugar for cookies. For tart dough, like pie dough and scone dough, you cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You can’t do that with soft butter.
- You can use between 3/4 pound and 1 pound mixed nuts. If you want a more gooey caramel tart, then go with less. If you want it to be really nutty, then stir in a full pound of nuts.
More Dessert Recipes
Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Cinnamon Owl Shortbread Cookies
Almond Flour Cake
Caramel Nut Tart
Ingredients
For dough
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For filling
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 – 1 pound roasted salted mixed nuts (almonds, peanuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, pumpkin seeds)
Instructions
- For the tart shell, pulse the flour, cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until combined. Add 1/2 cup chilled cubed butter and pulse it until the mixture looks crumbly. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until the dough starts to clump.
- Pat the dough into a 1-inch-thick disk, cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour up to 3 days.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm slightly. On a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough into a rough circle, about 12-inches in diameter and 1/8-inch-thick.
- Carefully transfer the dough to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and trim the excess. (Extra dough can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days or frozen up to 1 month.)
- Prick the bottom and sides of the dough with a fork. Freeze for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Line the dough with aluminum foil and fill with dried beans, rice or pie weights. Bake for 25 minutes until the tart starts to turn light brown. Remove the foil and weights and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
- To make the caramel, combine the granulated sugar and water into a medium saucepan with high sides over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring the caramel to a boil without stirring. You can gently swirl the pan especially when it starts to brown. Brush down the sides of the saucepan with a wet pastry brush as necessary.
- When the caramel is a deep amber color, remove it from the heat and whisk in the heavy cream, butter, honey and vanilla extract. Then stir in the nuts.
- Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15-20 minutes until the filling bubbles and the nuts are toasted. Cool on a wire rack before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I want to make these in small 4 inch tarts for a party. Is it necessary to serve these warmed or can they be room temperature
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You can serve them warm or at room temperature. Also, I just did some recipe testing and made a few adjustments. Please check the ingredient list again. There are a few changes. The tart turns out even better!