Walnut Pie

It is that season again. Harvesting, and making sweet edible memories.

My brothers, my sister and I, got this recipe from my mother, who got it from an old french lady in the area.

We grew up with this pie, which was made seasonally : sometimes for us, but especially for the “quine”, a yearly school event for which every parent had to bring a prize. No need to say that my parents’s “lot miel” (two pots of homemade honey and a walnut pie) was the most wanted prize of the evening.

For the dough :

• 300g of wheat flour
• 180g of butter
• 125g of sugar
• 1 egg (+1 egg for at the end)
• a pinch of salt

For the filling :

• 250g of sugar
• 280g of coarsely chopped walnuts
• 30mL of sour cream or heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of honey

The dough : Put flour, sugar, salt and egg in a mixing bowl, stir well. Add the room temperature butter in small cubes and kneed. Let the dough rest.

The filling :

• Put the sugar in a pan and let it caramelise (Leave on medium hight and do not stir until you see the sides becoming liquid. Then, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until there are no more lumps. Immediately turn off the heat.)
• Add the chopped walnuts and mix together, then add the cream and the honey and stir. Let the mixture cool down.

The pie :

• Roll out 2/3rds of the dough and put it in a greased pie dish. Make small holes in it with a fork. Add the filling.
• Wet the edge of the pie with a little bit of water, and cover the pie with the rest of the dough. If you do not have enough, you do not have to cover the whole pie, but make a nice decoration with thin strips of dough.
• Decorate de pie with walnuts and smear the beaten egg over the whole pie for a shiny effect.
• Bake at 180°C for an hour.