Rose's Alpha Bakers: Frozen Pecan Tart

It's week five of my bake-through adventure with Rose's Alpha Bakers. Up this week is the Frozen Pecan Tart - which I served for dessert after Christmas lunch - from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Baking Bible. The tart was a huge hit and was met with a chorus of ohhs and ahhs and a round of "you made this? It's delicious! Seconds, please."

my lovely Frozen Pecan Tart

a close up...

...and now a slice for dessert on Christmas

I let the tart warm for about 30 minutes before serving because it seemed rock solid when I took it out of freezer and I was a little unsure how a frozen tart/pie would taste (was it really not frozen through? It felt pretty solid!). But - never doubt Rose! - the filling was smooth and silky, almost like caramel. Even after 30 minutes, the tart was quite chilled - which was different than what I'm used to with pecan pie (warmed with vanilla ice cream, please) - but it was very, very good.

The tart would have been delicious with ice cream or whipped cream, but was equally good on its own. It was sweet, but not syrupy sweet like a lot of pecan pies. And - again, unlike most pecan pies I've made - the recipe made exactly the right amount of filling! With most pecan pies I've made in the past, you end up with either too much or too little filling. This recipe was perfect.

I added some leaf cutouts on surface of the tart (using these small leaf cookie cutters I bought at Amazon.com) and - other than wishing I had baked them slightly before adding to the tart so they would be a bit more brown - I really liked the decorative addition.

Here are my step-by-step photos.

mise en place for the crust

The crust was a pâte sucrée, so it's made with more sugar than a regular pie crust and has an egg yolk added to strengthen it. Pâte sucrée is a great crust for tarts because it's very sturdy and easy to roll out. I love making pies and tarts!

the heavy cream is added to the egg yolk

butter and sugar are creamed together

the flour is added to the butter-sugar mixture

then in go the creamy-eggs and everything is pulsed
until the dough is in pea-sized clumps

hello, gorgeous dough!

At this point, the recipe directions got very complicated about how to roll out the dough and lift it into the pan. It involved a pizza wheel, a 12" flan ring, and inverting the dough over the back of an 8" cake pan.

Hmmm...I normally just roll the dough larger than the tart pan and the gently work the dough onto the bottom, corners and up the sides. As much as I know that Rose never steers me wrong, I'm going to just to this my way. The main thing to remember is to not stretch the dough as you place it in the pan, otherwise it will pull back and shrink when it bakes.

measuring the dough

ta da - fits perfectly!

the dough is worked into the pan's fluted edges,
leaving no overhang

the tart shell is filled with rice and blind baked

while the tart shell is baking I made these leaf cutouts to go on top

...and now my gorgeous crust is done!

mise en place for the pecan filling

the filling is strained, giving it a silky smooth texture when baked

the pecans are laid out randomly or in a pattern, if you prefer

then the filling is poured over, gently

the leaves are laid down, edges covered and we're ready for the final bake

gorgeous!

Bye for now...