Pecan, cashew and hazelnut tart with a crumbly oat crust — a Honey & Co recipe

Though this is all made with pantry ingredients, it is hard to think of a more seasonally apposite sweet. Nuts and honey are nature’s energy stores: the bees make their honey when everything flowers, so that they’re fed and safe when there’s nothing in bloom; the smart squirrels hoard hardy, rich nuts for a winter treat. Us humans follow suit: compete for the nuts, steal the honey, store it in our pantries as a delicious safety net.

We are blessed these days with an abundance of foodstuff. You can get delicious strawberries from Morocco, raspberries from Spain, peaches and figs from further afield. But it is still very nice to remember that the essence of summer can be stored up in the pantry. Try roasting hazelnuts to a deep brown colour, pour some good honey on top, and fold in crunchy sea salt and punchy chilli flakes for a thrilling winter snack that’ll elevate everything from your morning porridge to your dinner soup or your boxset binge after. For a slightly more involved preparation give this tart a go — sweet, rich, a bit salty, a bit earthy from the oat crust and just the right amount of bitter from some coffee. You can use pretty much any nut mixture you fancy. And you can make it all year round, of course, but its season is now.

Mixed nut and honey tart with a crumbly oat crust

To make a 22cm shallow tart to serve 8-10

For the oat crust

For the filling

1. To make the crust, place all the ingredients in a mixer bowl with a paddle attachment (you can work it by hand if you prefer) and mix until it forms a soft, slightly sticky dough. Butter a loose bottom pie tin and press the dough in (it will be too soft to roll), trying to form an even shell all the way around and up the sides without any holes or gaps. Place it in the fridge to set and chill for at least an hour.

2. Heat the oven to 170 (gas mark 3) with a fan assist then very roughly chop the nuts and coffee beans, halving some and leaving some whole. In a saucepan heat the honey, sugar and butter until they dissolve, then remove from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes. Whisk in the eggs and nutmeg and then the rest of the nuts and mix well to coat.

3. Pour the entire mix into the chilled tart case and pop into the oven for 20 minutes. Rotate the pie then bake for a further 20-25 minutes until the mix is set. Cool for at least 30 minutes before carefully loosening from the tin. Wait another half-hour at least before slicing.

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