Cooking corner: Pecan tart

Helen Taylor Smith

guest columnist

Try this delicious-tasting, cholesterol-free, low-sweet, lowered-fat pecan tart with a cookie dough-type crust.

Use a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, in order to allow for easier cutting and serving. No corn syrup is used.

Check Fred Meyer’s natural food section for most of the products listed in quotes. Safeway carries a liquid egg product under its brand name: “Best of Egg.”

Pecan tart is great to serve at a buffet or for the holidays, which will be here all too soon.

Ingredients — Crust

1 1/4 cups “Bob’s Red Mill” oat flour

1/2 cup “Bob’s Red Mill” brown rice flour

3 tablespoons evaporated cane crystals

1/3 cup “Earth Balance” spread, softened

3 tablespoons “Nulaid Reddiegg,” divided — or use egg white

Technique

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 11-by-17-inch cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Lightly spray the entire inside of a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom with vegetable oil. Set aside.

In 2 quart mixing bowl, place the flours and the crystals, and whisk to blend. Add the softened spread and work it into the flour by using a fork.

Stir in two tablespoons of the egg product. Mix it with fork, then, by hand, work the dough and gather it into a ball.

Press the dough around the sides of the tart pan just level with the top of the pan. Then push the dough down and onto the bottom of the pan. Make sure the dough isn’t too thick at the curve of the pan.

Use a tamper tool or a heavy-bottomed glass dusted with flour to spread and flatten the dough across the bottom of the pan. Then prick the crust with fork tines.

Wet a pastry brush, squeeze out any excess water and lightly brush the remaining tablespoon of the egg product over the bottom of crust to seal it.

Place the tart pan onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake it for 12 to 14 minutes.

Remove and add the filling as instructed below.

Ingredients — Filling

2 tablespoons “Earth Balance” spread, melted but not hot

3 tablespoons evaporated cane crystals

1/2 cup pure maple syrup (Grade B works best)

1/3 cup “Nulaid Reddiegg,” or use egg white

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

1 3/4 cups dry toasted pecans, very coarsely broken or chopped

Technique

Prepare the filling while the crust is partially baked.

Place the spread in a 1 quart mixing bowl and microwave on high for 15 to 20 seconds. Then whisk it until it’s smooth.

Whisk in remaining the ingredients in the order listed, except the pecans.

When the crust has partially baked, remove it from oven, but keep the tart pan on the cookie sheet in order to avoid spillovers onto oven.

Spread the pecan pieces evenly over the bottom of the crust. Pour the filling over the pecans, and press any dry ones into the liquid. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

The filling may balloon up as it bakes, but it will settle down as it cools.

Cool thoroughly before slicing. Wrap any leftover slices individually in plastic wrap, and refrigerate or freeze in an airtight container.

Yield — 12 slices

Cooking Corner columnist Cook Helen Smith can be reached by e-mail at thecook@thehealthycook.com. This recipe is supplemental to and property of “Cooking Healthier with the Healthy Cook” by Helen Taylor Smith. Permission is granted for personal use only. No commercial use permitted without explicit written contract with the author.