The French Laundry Series: Pine Nut Crust

This Pine Nut Crust from The French Laundry cookbook is a simple and elegant crust. In the cookbook, it is used for the Lemon Sabayon tart; however, this crust can be used in a wide variety of tarts and pies.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Serving Size: 3 tart crusts

Ingredients

• 2 cups pine nuts

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 3 cups flour

• 16 tablespoons butter, softened at room temp

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Since this recipe does make enough dough for 3 tarts, you can freeze the dough that you do not use for future use.

1. Put the pine nuts in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the flour and sugar and pulse until the pine nuts are finely ground.

2. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and add the butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix until incorporated (you can mix by hand or with a paddle attachment on a stand mixer).

3. Partition the dough in 3 parts. Refrigerate the portion(s) that you are using for at least 10 minutes before use and freeze the remaining portion(s).

4. Preheat the oven to 350.

5. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and press it into a 10 inch tart pan (the dough should be about 1/4-1/3 inch thick on the bottom and sides.

6. Bake the crust for 10-15 minutes, or just until it is golden brown. Take the crust out of the oven and let it cool before filling.

This recipe is from The French Laundry cookbook, written by Thomas Keller.