Well that started off later than I thought it would. I missed a tool I would need (candy thermometer) when reading through the instructions so decided to order one - took longer than I thought to arrive with the holiday! But here we are, finally starting.
So forewarning, part of this adventure is me (a complete novice) learning the tools and technique of baking. So I will be making mistakes - lots of them. And I don't really know what I am talking about at all. fyi.
So I started off with making a cream cheese tartlet dough. Which was iffy. Came out very crumbly? But I clumped it together into a dough like form. I also found out my mixer doesn't seem to have a low option only fast, super fast, and super super fast it feels like.
So I formed the dough in the tartlet pans and baked which seemed to workout fine. I did manage to spill the rice I was using for pie weights over a bit of the kitchen and the amount of smoke it made was horrendous. Next came the heavy cream and caramel - first time making that! This worked out surprisingly well, I think because I have always heard of how easy it is to burn I babied it a lot.
Next was to mix in the macadamia nuts, which I had to go to no less than 3 stores to find the 'roasted, unsalted' version (thank you whole foods!) The mixture was then added to the shells and baked.
I finished later at night so quality of the picture has worsened.
And yum! The sauce was my favorite, wish I had cut the macadamia nuts a bit smaller. Crust was interesting - I think next time I'll make it a bit thinner as it wasn't completely baked on the bottom for a few of the tartlets.
