Better With Time

I’m an instant-gratification kind of girl. I don’t like waiting for packages from Amazon when there’s a perfectly decent (and privately owned!) bookstore down the road. I’m not a fan of postponing a purchase in the hopes that it will go on sale. And when it comes to baking, I can barely wait five minutes – let alone “til cooled completely” – to try whatever just came out of the oven. Because of this, my tongue has been singed more times than I care to admit. However, I’m pleased to tell you my patience is expanding – albeit slowly. Exhibit A: my two-day no-knead bread.

In life, sometimes a day of rest is exactly what’s needed. In baking, the same thing is true. That’s why I’m a fan of these walnut tarts. I admit I had my doubts after they came out of the oven (and I burnt my fingers prying them out of the muffin tins), but a day in a sealed Tupperware container did wonders for them. The walnuts and cream cheese crust needed to adjust to one another, to coexist rather than compete. Relationships take time, after all. After a day, the tarts really soften and the butter adds depth to the brown sugar and nuts. That’s likely because I adjusted the butter in the filling to 1 tablespoon instead of 1 teaspoon, but the day-in-Tupperware thing helps.

I think it’s fair, even appropriate, to categorize these tarts as make-ahead treats. They only get better with time.

Feel free to substitute pecans for the walnuts, or to make a mixture of both. I ended up with more dough than filling, so I froze the remaining crust. It was just Dave and me, and the two of us didn’t need 24 tarts. Though I’m pretty sure we could have eaten them all.



You probably noticed the half-eaten tart to the left of center. Like I said, I'm trying to be more patient. It's a work in progress.

Golden Walnut and Cream Cheese Tarts
Adapted from The Gastronomy of Marriage, by Michelle Maisto

Ingredients for Tart Crust:
8 ounces cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 cup flour

Ingredients for Walnut or Pecan Tart Filling:
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place muffin tray(s) in the fridge so that it gets cool. Mix the crust ingredients together and place a teaspoon of the crust dough into each muffin cup. Push the dough into the cup to form a “pie crust” that is about as thick as an orange peel. Return the muffin tin to the fridge so that it stays cool while you make the filling. Mix all of the filling ingredients together. Grease muffin tins with butter (this is important: the tarts won’t come out of the tins unless they’re greased. Believe me, I pried). Spoon a little filling mixture into each crust. Do not fill the tins completely. Bake 20-30 minutes or until your tarts are a light brown color. Cool completely and remove from tins. Store in Tupperware at room temperature.

Makes 24 tarts.