Macadamia & Honey Pie

We live in a mountainous area in the North of Thailand. Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain, 2565 meters, in Chiang Mai province. And we can see Doi Pha Hom Pok, 2285 meters, from our house. Doi Pha Hom Pok is the thirth highest mountain in Thailand. We live in a beautiful area with good views from the mountains on the valley. About 40 km from our house we also have Doi Angkhang; 1928 meters high.

We love to go on our motorbikes for a nice drive to Doi Angkhang. There we visit the gardens in the Royal Project and enjoy a lunch with Shan (from Burma) dishes. On the marketplace in the village Doi Angkhang you find good local products. We bought almonds and macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts also grow in Thailand. They are delicious but have a very hard nutshell. One day soon we will have a macadamia tree in our garden. It takes about 10 years before the first nuts can be eaten, so we better hurry and plant one. The hard nutshells gave Peter some sweat but he cracked the shells (with a hammer because the nutcracker was not enough) just in time for the pie I was preparing.

We were invited by friends for lunch and I was asked to bring something sweet. I found this recipe at Taste.com.au. Have a look at the photo and see if you can resist this pie; I couldn’t. 

I’m happy I made it and was surprised when I saw only 2 people gave their comment and only 2 stars on the original recipe. I wanted to leave a very positive comment but I needed to login and fill in a form and remember my password and … So, I didn’t. I hope when someone wants to bake a Macadamia & Honey Pie they find this post and see what a great recipe it is! We love it and so did our friends. The only thing I changed is to substitute golden syrup for honey. The reason is simple I don’t have golden syrup and I do have a lot of honey. The crust is great, I baked it a bit longer but that’s normal with my oven.

Enough talking, it’s time for baking this great pie.  

This is what I used for a pie with 6 servings: 

Pastry
grated zest of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar, sifted
300 g plain flour
150 g unsalted butter, chilled
1 egg plus 1 extra egg yolk
1–2 tbs chilled water if necessary

Filling:
100 g unsalted butter, melted
125 g honey (instead of golden syrup)
100 g firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp mixed spice
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 eggs
290 g unsalted macadamias, halved

You also need:
Thick cream, to serve
25 cm loose-bottomed tart pan
dry beans or pastry weights
Parchment paper

This is what I did:
Pastry: place zest, icing sugar, flour and butter in a food processor with a pinch of salt. Process until mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and extra yolk, then process until mixture forms a smooth ball (add 1-2 tbs chilled water if necessary). Wrap in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Take pastry and cut into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece out flat on a floured work counter. Line the, lightly greased and lightly floured, tart pan with the pastry. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Line pastry shells with baking paper; fill with pastry weights or dry beans and blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and weights or beans and return pastry shells to the oven for a further 5 minutes until the pastry is light golden and dry. I baked it another 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 175°C.

Filling: place butter, honey, brown sugar, spice, zest, juice and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat until mixture comes together. Pour into pastry shells and sprinkle macadamias over top.

Bake: 15-20 minutes until filling is firm and nuts are golden. I baked it for 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan.

You can eat it warm or completely cooled. Serve with cream.

I found this recipe at Taste.com.au 

I send this to Bake Your Own Bread