The Nutty Gritties signature product: Dry Fruit Blend

A staple for health freaks, this blend includes quality driven almonds, walnuts, cranberries and figs; basically its good health in a single pack! 

Where the unique jumbo almonds help you get you blood pressure on track, the NG special Californian walnuts are brilliant antioxidants, figs are a great source of calcium and cranberries provide you with your vitamin intake for the day… see what I meant by “health in a pack”? There really isn’t a down side to this!

Now normally, I’d recommend that you eat them as it is, crispy almonds combined with sweet cranberries is a stellar snack on its own! You could even crumble the delicious blend over a bowl of plain yogurt or churn them with your milk. If you’re in the mood for something savory, no problem- a nice crunchy rocket leaves salad with a lime and orange vinaigrette, works beautifully with this dry frit blend. (We promise we’ll do a quick recipe on something savory soon too!)

But for now, with Independence day holidays approaching, we thought that its time to have some fun with a cheat meal on the menu.  

This week, let’s attempt to make a Fruit and nut tart!

Here’s what you need:

Ingredients:

For the base pastry:

• 180gms of all purpose flour
• 55ms of castor sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• ½ a cup or 115gms of butter
• 1 large egg
• 9inch tart tin

For the filling:

• 210gms of granulated sugar
• 60ml of double cream
• 50gms of butter
• 300gms of Nutty Gritty Dry Fruit Blend- cut into small bits

Method:

1. To make the pastry; To a large bowl, add the flour and room temperature butter. Mix the two ingredients till they form a coarse bread crumb like mixture.
2. In a small bowl beat an egg.
3. To the existing mixture, add the sugar and salt. Once combined, add the egg. (Use your hands to create a dough out of the mixture and add a spoonful of milk to it if it feels too crumbly)
4. Refrigerate the dough for about an hour.
5. Set the oven to preheat at 375degrees Fahrenheit. Whilst that’s in progress, roll out your dough into an 11inch circle, so that you can easily cover the tin, and cut off the excess. Roll the dough onto the tin and once set to your satisfaction, use a fork to make holes into the tart. Blind bake the crust for 20 minutes and allow it to cool, once its done.
6. To make the filling, prepare the caramel by melting the sugar in a pan with 4 teaspoons of water, till it turns golden brown. (Pro tip- mix the sugar and water before turning on the flame and resist stirring the caramel to avoid crystallization)..
7. Remove the caramel from the heat and stir in the cream and butter to it.
8. Add the cut up Dry Fruit Blend, to the caramel.
9. Scoop the caramel mixture over the pastry and serve 

Now if we are talking about an indulgent meal, this tart tastes best with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on a gorgeous Sunday evening!