Our daughter returned from spending most of June in Europe, seeing a few cathedrals along the way. When she returned we headed straight for the beach for time with family. Each of the cousins took turns sharing their summer adventures on designated nights, and for our daughter’s special evening I whipped up a light, sweet, summer dessert called a Huguenot Torte, inspired by her visit to France, and with consideration of another cousin’s Huguenot heritage (French Huguenots of the 1700s were a severely persecuted Protestant people under Catholic France for the
their Reformation theology, an irony not lost on this Iowa raised Catholic).
Enjoy this Midwestern twist on an old Southern favorite, and while you do, remember that the religious freedoms we now enjoy were paid for by people of faith who came before us.
Tread carefully…
Step one:
Candied Pecans
Heat skillet to very hot, place two handfuls of pecans and one cup of sugar. Keep a wooden spoon stirring and start lightly spraying with water. Watch closely as the pecans carmelize and lower the heat slowly. The whole process is very quick keep watching closely and stirring. Place candied pecans on marble to cool.
4 eggs
3 cups of Splenda ( A couple of people at the beach house were watching sugars and this substitution was not noticed by anyone to my great surprise)
8 -10 tbsp. flour
5 tsp. baking powder ( you may also use 1/4 tsp. of baking soda and 5/8 tsp. creme of tartar for each tsp.) for leavening agent
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cups of chopped apples/ 1 cup of chopped pears
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine everything in blender, but fold in apples and pears, pour into a 9 * 13 pan.
Place candied pecans in a bag and hammer into broken pieces. Toss pieces gently on top the batter. Place in oven for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Trish Southard 
So good to know you can use Splenda for this receipe. As a Diabetic, it is important. Thanks.
Please just toss the pecans on without spending the time to candy them. I’m notorious for putting candied pecans, walnuts and almonds on everything. The torte is light and delicious without them. Thanks for stopping by Kathee:)
This sounds AMAZING. And while the candied pecans sound tricky, the rest sounds actually easy…just different from what I’ve ever made before. I’m really intrigued. And my dad tells me we have French Huguenot blood, so I’m now obligated to give it a go. 🙂
You can use real sugar…same portion …enjoy!
This torte with the fresh fruit sounds lovely and the candied nuts will top it off. This is a must try as I just purchased some pears and I have everything else! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Hazel. I thoroughly enjoyed checking out your blog today.
Saw your title on annkroeker and had to check out the recipe.
Sounds wonderful and I’ve bookmarked it to try when the temperature goes back down into the 90s here in Texas.
P.S. Some of my antecedents were French Huguenots.