Gluten Free: Walnut and Maple Syrup Tart

This started life as treacle tart, but went through so many revisions that it became something else entirely! Quite a lot of my cooking works like that - start with a vague idea about what to make, root through cupboards to find what ingredients I actually have, then revise original plan to accommodate half a bag of dates and a sad looking apple - every day is a (rather small and uneventful) adventure. Sometimes, I strike gold.

You'll need:

For the pastry:

• 150g butter
• 300g rice flour (or try a gluten free pastry mix like Foodamentalist's or Mrs Crimble's)
• 1 egg

For the filling:

• 120g walnuts
• 125g butter, softened
• 50g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150g maple syrup
• 2 tbsp rice flour

Make it!

• Put the butter and rice flour in the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Run of the lowest setting and add the egg, run the food processor until the mixture suddenly comes together into a soft dough (if it doesn't come together, add cold water, a drop at a time until it does). Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to rest for 10 minutes (don't chill it, yet).
• Roll the dough out between two pieces of cling film to about 1/2cm thick and line a 20cm tart tin (or about 6 tartlet cases). Pop that into the fridge for about 15 minute, while the oven pre-heats to 190°C. When ready to bake, cover the pastry with baking paper and weigh it down with some baking beans, rice or dried peas. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and paper. Leave to cool.
• Finely chop, or grind the walnuts in a blender.
• Whisk the butter and sugar until it's fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the walnuts, maple syrup and rice flour and mix well. Pour into the pastry case and bake at 180°C for 45 minutes, or until evenly golden on top.

I like to serve it still slightly warm, with clotted cream and an extra drizzle or maple syrup.

(Don't be afraid of gluten free pastry, it's actually easier to make than the regular stuff because there's no gluten to overwork! You can roll, re-roll and patch holes with no unhappy consequences and everyone will think you're a culinary genius.)