Pecan and White Chocolate Tart

Kay's birthday was this past Sunday. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that she does most of our dessert baking. This day, however I made the dessert. After all, you can hardly ask the birthday girl to make her own celebratory sweet. I found a recipe for this scrumptious tart in Bobby Flay's Bold American Food. It tastes even better than it looks and it is fairly simple to make.

PECAN AND WHITE CHOCOLATE TART

(12 servings)

CRUST

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
  
• 3 tablespoons ice water
  
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  

PECAN FILLING

• 1 cup sugar
  
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
  
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
  
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  
• 2 tablespoons dark rum, preferably Myer's
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 1/2 cups pecan halves or pieces
  

• 3 ounces white chocolate
  

1. To prepare the pastry, combine the flour, sugar and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Use the paddle attachment and mix until the mixture is the consistency of coarse meal. Add ice water to form a soft dough. Pat the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Roll out the dough into a 14-inch circle and place it in an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Line the shell with foil, wight it down with dried beans or baking weights, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and foil and bake for 3 minutes more. Brush the shell with the beaten egg and bake for 3 minutes more. Set aside the baked pastry shell. Reduce the oven heat to 325 degrees F.

4.To prepare the filling, in a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, eggs, corn syrup, butter, rum and vanilla extract. Whisk just to blend. Arrange the pecans in the baked pastry shell and pour the sugar mixture over them, making sure that every nut covered. Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, or until brown and firm. Let cool at room temperature.

5. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over very low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until completely melted. Use a fork to drizzle the warm chocolate  over the finished tart. Remove the sides of the pan and slice the tart for serving.

I discovered that you really need the weight of the beans for baking the shell and that you should fill the space completely with beans. I didn't have the foil completely weighted down and the sides of the tart shrank somewhat. The finished tart was still quite pretty, but would have been even more lovely if the crust had been properly weighted while baking.

Comments

[Terre]

Could something actually taste better than this looks? I will have to pass it along to my kids so they can try it out before June. I have a feeling it might be tastier than a Landis Market birthday cake.