Everyday Epicurean

We were renting for a while at a place with a couple of large, well established Macadamia Nut trees, consequently we ended up with a large collection of nuts. So after an afternoon of cracking them I came up with this very tasty way to use them.

Ingredients

Base:

• 1/3 cup of Castor Sugar
• a titch under 2/3 cup of butter
• 2/3 cup of plain flour
• 1/3 cup of oat bran

Filling:

• 1 tin of Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 egg yolk
• a dash of Vanilla Essence
• about 3/4 breakfast bowl of Macadamia Nuts

Method

Pre-heat oven at 200C
If freshly cracked, wash the nuts and place in the pie flan. Lightly roast in the oven for about 10 mins to dry the nuts. Remove from the flan and set aside.
Combine the sugar, flour, oat bran and butter in a large mixing bowl. Kneed until well mixed. Press into a pyrex pie flan.
Pre-bake for 15 min (until top has just turned brown in places).
Remove from oven when the edges are just starting to show signs of crispiness and the middle no longer looks either like a lake of butter, or continues to rise dramatically.
Allow to cool until the base feels firm to press on.
Now combine the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla essence and egg yolk. Whisk briskly.
When the base is sufficiently cool and firm, cover it with the nuts, and pour the filling evenly over the top.
Place the pie in the 150C oven and cook for about 45 to 50 mins. The pie is done when the top has browned (but not burnt), and the middle shows signs of being set. (note, it will set further as it cools). The longer cooking time allows the filling to caramise further.
Allow to cool out of the oven for at least 1/2 hour before cutting.

Serve warm with Ice cream.
(also suitable to be served chilled, with coffee).