Pecan and chocolate tart

My successful pie-baking attempt last weekend left me hungry for more (yes, that will be the last of the food-related wordplay for this blogpost). Funnily enough, being so adverse to anything pastry-related has left me with hardly any cookbooks that contain pie recipes. After a long search I found one in Paul Hollywood's How to Bake, one of those cookbooks I should really use more often. It was called a 'pecan and chocolate tart', but it did require sweet pastry. If I ever find the time I will have to look into the difference between a pie and a tart, because I thought I had all the baking lingo figured out and this should have been a pecan and chocolate pie (similar to the infamous pecan pie I made 5 years ago) according to my semantic weather vane. But let's not worry about that now!
Funnily enough, the sweet pastry (or 'pate sucree') recipe Paul Hollywood uses is different from the one Yvette used. I thought this would be one of those 'baking basics' that are universally the same, but apparently you can give this your own twist. Still finding myself somewhat in a pastry apprenticeship, I decided to follow Paul on this one.

Ingredients
For the sweet pastry:
180 g flour
120 g cold butter, cubed
55 g sugar
1 egg

For the filling:
80 g dark chocolate, in pieces
45 g butter, cubed
160 g sugar
235 g golden syrup
3 eggs
235 g chopped pecan nuts (or 220 g in my case, as they come in 110 g packages)

As always, first make the pastry. Combine the flour and sugar and rub in the butter with your fingers until you reach the magical 'fine breadcrumbs' stage. Try to work quickly to keep the butter as cold as possible. Add the egg, combine into a dough, and form into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for about 2 hours. Take it out of the fridge and leave for at least 15 minutes.

Grease your loose-bottomed tart tin. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is big enough to fill the tin. Transfer to the tin and push it neatly into the edges, not stretching or pulling the dough (that is what causes the shrinkage). Trim off the edges and put back in the fridge while you make the filling.

For the filling, put the butter and chocolate to melt au-bain-marie, stirring to an even mixture. Set aside to cool.
Next, combine the syrup and sugar in a pan, stirring all the while, until it comes to a boil. Set aside to cool, but make sure it is still runny.
Beat the eggs together, add the melted chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until smooth. Now for the difficult part; while you keep whisking, pour in the hot syrup mixture in a thin trickle until it is fully incorporated. If you're smart, you let your KitchenAid do the whisking, or have someone else pour in the syrup. If you're unprepared like me, you hold the mixer in your left hand while your right arm cramps up from pouring in the syrupy mixture (or the other way around, if you prefer).
When the syrup is all incorporated, stir in the chopped pecans and set aside to cool.

Heat your oven to 180 C. Pour the mixture into your pastry case. If you're smart, pour the mixture in the case while it is already in the oven, as it fills all the way to the top and transferring the tin without spilling the mixture is a challenge. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the mixture is set and the pastry is golden (for me, this took more like 55 minutes). Leave to cool completely.

Tart pre-bake (and pre-transfer to the oven)

Funnily enough, on this particular pie/tart concoction, the filling was more difficult to make than the pastry. The pastry actually did everything I wanted it to do. And it came out sweet and crumbly, what we would call 'bros' in Dutch; one of those words that has no direct English translation.

Pretty pie with pretty pastry

Actually, the filling was a bit of a let-down. It is rich in pecan and chocolate flavour, but the golden syrup comes through too strongly for my taste. It makes the whole tart a bit caramelly and clingy. This may well be the way a pecan pie (tart) is supposed to taste, but it is not one of my favourite tastes. I will have to look into more fresh and fruity pies, perhaps with raspberries or more lemony flavours, as this somehow feels autumny to me.
But apart from the syrup overdose, this is yet another notch on my pastry-making and pie-baking belt! I may even secretly be getting the hang of this...