Brown-Butter Maple Pecan Butter Tarts

Method

1. All-butter pastry: mix the flour and salt, add the very cold butter cut into 1.5 cm cubes and flatten them between your fingers so coin-sized flakes remain. Sprinkle over the ice water and bring together with a fork, then roll into a rectangle, fold it in three like a letter, turn 90 degrees, roll and fold once more. Wrap and chill for 1 h. The flat butter flakes create layers in the oven.

   Add in this stepPlain flour (plus extra for rolling) 125 gSalt (for the pastry) 1 pinchVery cold butter (for the pastry) 85 gIce-cold water 40 ml

2. Toast the pecans in a dry pan on medium-low heat for 3 min, shaking often, until fragrant; cool and chop roughly.

   Add in this stepPecans 40 g

   medium-low heat

3. Brown butter: put the butter in a small light-coloured pan on medium heat for 3 min, swirling constantly. When the foam subsides, the milk solids on the bottom turn hazelnut brown and it smells nutty, pour it straight into a bowl and cool for 5 minutes. It can burn in seconds, so don't walk away.

   Add in this stepButter (for browning) 30 g

   medium heat

4. Stir the brown sugar, maple syrup and cream into the brown butter until dissolved, then gently mix in the egg, vanilla and salt with a spoon. Heat the oven to 200 °C.

   Add in this stepBrown sugar 50 gPure maple syrup 60 mlDouble (heavy) cream 10 mlEgg, beaten and weighed 25 gVanilla extract ½ tspSalt (for the filling) 1 pinch

5. Roll the pastry 3 mm thick, cut 6 × 10 cm rounds with a 10 cm cutter, press them into a muffin tin and chill for 15 minutes. Divide the chopped pecans between the cases and pour in the filling two-thirds of the way up.

6. Bake on the lower shelf at 200 °C for 16 min. When the pastry is deep golden and only the centre wobbles slightly, take them out and, while hot, top each with a few flakes of the sea salt.

   Add in this stepFlaky sea salt 1 pinch

7. Leave in the tin for 20 min, loosen with a knife and cool completely on a rack.