Ingredients:

Maple Syrup Cake

• 240g Unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 100g Caster sugar
• 145g Dark muscavado sugar
• 96ml Maple syrup
• 28ml Honey
• 5 Eggs (Medium)
• 150g Hazelnut flour
• 260g Plain flour
• 5g Baking powder

Coole Swan Vanilla Crème Anglaise

• 98ml Milk
• 296ml Coole Swan
• 100ml Cream
• 120g Egg yolk
• 50g Caster sugar
• 1g Vanilla pod

Coole Swan Caramel

• 180g Caster sugar
• 40ml Water
• 45g Unsalted butter
• 228ml Coole Swan

Plain Sable (for the tart shell)

• 240g Unsalted butter
• 180g Icing sugar
• 4g Salt
• 60g Almond flour
• 2 Eggs (Medium)
• 120g Plain flour (1)
• 330g Plain flour (2)

Caramelized Salted Popcorn

• 100g Caster sugar
• 60g Popcorn

 

Method

Maple Syrup Cake

Preheat the oven to 165°C. Cream the butter, sugars, and maple syrup. Add the eggs one by one. Mix until combined. Add the honey and combine. (The egg must be room temperature to avoid the butter splitting.) Mix the flour, hazelnut flour and baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture until battered. Let the batter mature in the fridge between 12 and 24 hours to enhance the flavors and texture of the cake. Cook in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes.
In this recipe we will pipe the batter into a tart shell with caramel on the top.

 

Coole Swan Vanilla Crème Anglaise

Mix the egg yolks with the caster sugar. Infuse the milk, cream, and Coole Swan with the vanilla. Use the seeds and the pod. Put the seeds into the milk first. Bring to the boil, strain into the egg & caster sugar mixture and bring back to the heat until it reaches 82°C stirring at all times. Pour into a container and cling film to skin. Let it rest in the fridge until cold.

 

Coole Swan Caramel

Place the water and the caster sugar in a big pan (the caramel will rise very high). Make sure that the sugar is saturated before putting it on the heat. When golden, add butter to the caramel. Stir and let it cook for a minute. Warm Coole Swan. Add in half and stir and then the other half and stir. Cook for one minute. Pour into a bowl. Let it cool before using in our recipe. This is a surprising caramel with a lovely Coole Swan aftertaste.

 

Plain Sable (for the tart shell)

Heat the oven to 165°C. Combine all ingredients except Plain flour 2. When well blended add Plain flour 2 and combine to make a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film. Keep in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Better if you allow 12 hours in the fridge as the flour will absorb the fats better.
Dust a surface with flour. Roll the dough to 2mm thickness. Then Cut a rectangle as high as your mould and the length of the circumference. Cut a to fit the bottom of the mould (check out the video for more). Line the mould with the dough. Blind bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Tip: To keep the shape of the tart shell, put the lined mould in the freezer for ten minutes before baking and use marbles or some rice packed in cling film as weight.
We will fill the tart with the rest of the ingredients and cook again. This is a perfect dough for other tarts as well as pies.

 

Caramelized Salted Popcorn

Make a caramel with the sugar to a golden colour in a large pot. Take off the heat, add the popcorn and stir until the caramel covers the popcorn. Pour the popcorn in the mould and let it set.

 

Assembly

You will need toasted macadamia nuts as part of the tart. Once you have blind baked the tart shell, add a small layer of Coole Swan caramel on the bottom of it. Put 4 or 5 macadamia nuts on top. Put in the freezer for about 15 minutes until the caramel hardens. Pipe the maple cake mix on top until up 2/3 of the shell. Cook in the oven preheated at 165°C for 16 to 18 minutes. Let rest before brushing it with some Maple glaze (same amount of water and maple syrup boiled together).
Make a hole in the middle of the cake and pipe some Coole Swan Anglaise. Top with some caramelized popcorn. I finished with some fresh figs, chocolate shards and a bubble decoration.
Tips: Hazelnut Flour – I have made my own hazelnut flour by toasting them in the oven, let them cool down and blitz to a powder.