Quince and Macadamia Tart

This Quince and Macadamia Tart recipe is a bit like a cheese board turned into a tart. It takes a while but the poached quince can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.

Macadamia tart base

Put the flour, butter, salt and macadamias into a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the machine still running, add the iced water one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture just comes together, do not overwork.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and form into a disc, wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Put the dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll out until 3-4mm thick. Line a tart tin and trim. Shortcrust pastry can be a little tricky to manage, an easy way of transferring the dough into the tart tin is to peel back the top layer of baking paper and invert the rolled dough over the tin, peeling the remaining paper off once the dough is in the tin.
Once pressed into the tin, line the dough with a sheet of baking paper or foil and fill with uncooked rice, dried beans or baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes then remove the paper and baking weights and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until it begins to turn golden.

The filling

Gently whisk the cheese, cream, crème fraiche and scraped seeds from the vanilla bean until well combined. Dissolve the gelatin into a tablespoon of cream and mix through thoroughly.

The topping

Peel quince and hold in a vertical position. use a small sharp knife to cut down either side of the centre core to remove the “cheeks”.Then slice the flesh off in wedges from the other two sides. Combine ingredients in a saucepan and make sure quince are covered.
Bring to a simmer, stir to dissolve sugar, then cook over low heat until blush (approx. 4 hours). Cool, refrigerate until chilled (1-2 hours), then strain liquid into a saucepan. Refrigerate quince until required. Cook liquid over medium-high heat until syrupy (1 hour). The syrup will keep for 1 week.