The Baking Bible: Frozen Pecan Tart

Hello all. I skipped last week's cookies as we were down in California for the holidays, but we came home Friday night just in time to bake this week's Frozen Pecan Tart. Which made me a little sad. I am not a big fan of pecan pie, as it is usually too sweet and seems to be more about the goo than pecans which makes me wonder why they don't call it "goo pie with some nuts." Turning this goo pie into a tart, so there is a more even balance between goo and nuts is really the only logical thing to do, and made me a fan of pecan tarts. Also, even though it looks like there's lots of complicated instructions which made me even more reluctant to bake this tart, it all is rather easy and fairly quick to assemble. So it has been decided this tart may stay.

December 29, 2014
Name of Tart: Pecan Tart with Some Goo
Occasion: bake along!
Constituents: a 9 inch tart with a sweet cookie crust and goo made with golden syrup and muscovado

The first order of business: making the crust. I finally forced myself to make the crust last night, and there is no photographic evidence that I did so. It was hard enough getting up off the couch as it was.

Thankfully, the crust can be made in the food processor, and thankfully, we have a dishwasher to wash the food processor. The hardest part was processing the turbinado sugar (the crust calls for turbinado instead of boring white sugar) into fine crystals. Once that business was done, the rest of the dough gets mixed up right quick. A quick knead to get all the crumbly bits together, and the dough is off to the refrigerator to rest up and sort itself out.

if the food is on the couch does that mean i can eat it?

Then the dough is rolled out to fit the tart pan. For a 9 inch tart pan, the dough is rolled out large enough to cut a 12 inch circle. I used the bottom of a 12 inch cake pan as my template. Here comes all the funky, seemingly complicated instructions. First, the dough circle is draped over an 8 inch cake pan. Then the bottom of the tart pan is laid on top of the dough and the tart pan ring fitted over that. Then the whole contraption is flipped over, the 8 inch cake pan removed, and ta-da! The dough is nicely fitted into the tart pan. I have to say, it actually made placing the dough in the pan really easy and practically foolproof. So word to the wise: it sounds like a pain in the ass but it actually makes it all very easy.

Then the edges are folded over and you can make a nice little pattern on the edge with the back of a knife which I actually did do.

I put the tart pan into the refrigerator and both of us went to bed.

This morning the tart shell got a blind bake, and while cooling, the filling is made. This is super easy; pretty mich all of the ingredients except vanilla and the pecans are cooked on the stovetop until thickened and gooey. The pecans are arranged in the tart shell, the goo is poured over the top, more pecans are shimmied in, and then it's time to bake a tart. Done.

The tart is designed to be served frozen, so after cooling it goes into the freezer for at least a couple of hours. There is an optional chocolate drizzle that if you haven't noticed I opted not to do. The tart doesn't freeze solid so it isn't like you're eating a pecan tart popsicle; rather it is just cold and the goo is thick. I noticed as I took pictures of the tart the goo got gooier as it warmed up, so if you like your tart runny then maybe keep it at room temperature. Or maybe that was just my tart that did that...

All told, the Frozen Pecan Pie was delicious, it was easy. and it will be made again someday. Mark thinks that this was the best pecan pie/tart he's ever had, and since he's a pie guy, that's saying something.