Some of my recipes are attempts at recreation: I’ve eaten a dish that’s so good I simply must find out how to make it and put it on regular rotation in my kitchen. Others, however, start not as an attempt to recreate but to rectify, to do justice to what I thought something was going to be, before reality failed.
Such is the genesis of this tart. More than a year ago, my partner and went out for a hike and then stopped at a little French bakery outside of town. We picked up some bread and a pastry or two, and though my Chief Recipe Taster tucked into his choice before we’d even left the place, I waited. I was going to take my pastry—my pecan tart, you guessed it—home and savor it. The first bite would dazzle me. The cinnamon would supplement the toastiness of the pecans, offsetting the sweetness of the filling; the crust would crumble under my teeth. Sounds great, right? Except that that’s not what happened, not at all. I had my favorite chair and a good movie all right, but the tart was all wrong. It was too sweet, the filling a bit gloppy and the flavor cloying; the pastry didn’t shatter and didn’t really have much flavor, either. The best that could be said for the entire thing was meh.
I knew I could do better, so I set out to do so. My first attempts were uniformly meh as well. I’d decided to incorporate chocolate (because why not), but I couldn’t figure out the best way to do that. I couldn’t find a crust recipe that I liked. The fillings were all wrong—too sweet, not enough cinnamon, too thick. I got so frustrated, and so tired of eating trials and errors, that I put the recipe aside for awhile.
As soon as the weather turned cool this year, however, my thoughts turned back to the tart. “What if,” I wondered, “I coated the bottom of the tart shell with a chocolate ganache…” and because you can hardly ever go wrong when chocolate ganache is your starting point, I was off and running from there. A bit of research, a trial tart or two, and the recipe was done. After I’d baked the last trial tart, I sat down to give it a try. This time, it was everything I’d hoped for. Using a ganache, rather than just tossing chocolate chips into the filling, keeps the chocolate bitable; using a pate sucree, rather than a pie crust, keeps the pastry rich and finely textured, a nice counterpoint to the gooey filling. A judicious amount of salt keeps the sweetness in check, and the cinnamon makes it all more interesting. There’s no failure of reality here; this recipe more than does justice to what that original tart might have been.
Cinnamon Pecan Chocolate Tart
Sources: Crust adapted from, and filling inspired by, Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours
Makes 1 9-inch tart
Active time: ~60 minutes; total time ~90 minutes
Note: You can spread the work of this tart out over two days by making the tart crust and ganache ahead of time. If you do so, press the tart crust into the pan and cover well; store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to fill and bake it. Likewise, cover and chill the ganache. Take it out of the refrigerator an hour or so before you plan to use it, or zap it on low power in the microwave until it’s spreadable again. Either way, give it a good mix to ensure it’s smooth and spreadable before using.
Crust Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 9 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and kept very cold
- 1 large egg yolk
Ganache Ingredients
- 1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli 60%)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Filling Ingredients
- 3/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
1–1 1/2 cups pecan halves (not pieces)
Make the crust: Put the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to combine. Sprinkle the butter cubes over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in and is roughly the size of oatmeal flakes. Add the egg yolk and pulse for about 20 seconds several times. The sound of the food processor will change—this is your signal that the mixture is about to come together. Let it just barely do so, then tip the dough into a large bowl. Lightly toss it about a few times to ensure the ingredients are fully incorporated. Press about 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and use the rest of the dough to line the sides. I like to roll my tart dough into logs and press those against the sides—I get a more consistent thickness around the edges this way. You can, of course, dump all of the dough into the tart pan and press it to cover the bottom and sides; baker’s preference. Let the prepared tart crust chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or up to one day.
Make the ganache: Put the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer then pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a few minutes, then slowly whisk until you have a silky, homogenous mixture. If not making the ganache ahead of time, let it cool to at least room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 375°F degrees.
Make the filling: Whisk all of the ingredients together until smooth and well combined. Rap the bowl against your counter a few times to surface and pop any air bubbles. Set aside.
Put it all together: Remove the tart shell from the refrigerator and place it on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Spread the bottom of the tart shell evenly with the ganache. If your tart shell is very cold, the ganache might freeze on impact; this is nothing to worry about. Gently pour the filling over the ganache. Arrange the pecan halves decoratively on top of the filling and carefully slide the tray into the oven. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is puffed and the filling doesn’t jiggle much when you give the tray a shake.
Let the tart cool completely to room temperature—which will take several hours—before slicing. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream or fresh, homemade whipped cream. This tart is best eaten the day it’s made.