Monday, December 29, 2014

Frozen Pecan Tart

December 29, 2014

Pie is probably my least favorite dessert, but I love pecan pie.  I don't like desserts that are overly sweet, but I love pecan pie.  I'm not a big fan of southern food, but ... well, you get the picture.  Against all reason, I just love pecan pie.  This one was exceptionally good, although I don't think I really get why it has to be frozen.  I understand why it's a tart because that makes it shallower so it's not quite so tooth-achingly sweet, and I can see that slicing it when it's frozen makes it less messy to cut, I'm not sure why it remains frozen after that.  (In fact, at my house, it stayed in the refrigerator, which was a compromise to a problem I still don't understand).


This pecan tart would make a wonderful Thanksgiving dessert, and would be splendid at Christmas.  I made it for an Argentinian reunion.  It made no sense for that occasion, except that it was next on the list and the people coming over to our house to watch an Argentinian movie like good food.  (Don't you love it when people make happy noises when they're eating something you've cooked).  We ate this pecan tart while watching "The Motorcycle Diaries," an excellent movie about young Che Guevara and a friend of his motorcycling through beautiful scenery in Argentina and Chile while becoming radicalized politically.  After we were done with the pie, we drank several glasses of Argentinian Malbec.  I'm not sure pecan pie and Malbec is a match made in heaven, but it tasted good to me.  But this is all after the pie has been assembled, baked, and frozen.


"The dough will be in crumbly pieces."  If I do say so, I believe this is as close to a textbook example of "crumbly pieces" as you're likely to get.  I remind myself that "crumbly pieces" is not my final goal to stop myself from getting to pleased with myself.  And a good thing, too, because just a few minutes later, I find that the dough is sticking to my pastry mat and I have to scoop the whole mess up and start over.


This is the dough while it was still behaving itself.


This is my second try.  I put LOTS of flour on the pastry mat so I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.  I've found that there are plenty of brand new mistakes just waiting to happen, so it really is quite foolish to repeat an old one.


This frying pad lid is my template.  Only it's not 12 inches in diameter, so I have to make the dough a little bit bigger than the lid.  This obviously lessens the utility of the template, but it's surprising (to me, anyway) how difficult it is to find a 12-inch circle in among one's kitchen supplies.  I had many things that were smaller than 12 inches and a few things that were larger, but nothing was 12 inches on the nose.


If you don't look too closely at the flaws in this uncooked pie crust, you might think it looks pretty good.  I thought it looked pretty good myself, which is why I told Jim to take a picture of it.  Then I noticed the fat parts and the skinny parts, the unevenness, the blotches on the bottom of the crust.  Etc. etc.  I was growing less sanguine about having a presentable, edible pie for our friends, and I thought I might have to go buy several more bottles of Malbec so they'd forget that I actually invited them over for dessert.


I decided to make up for my devil-may-care attitude with the pie crust by putting  more weights than Charles Atlas could lift in my pie crust.  Oh, you don't even know who Charles Atlas was, do you?  Don't you hate it when you make a reference that leaves everyone looking blank?  How about Jesse Ventura?  Do you at least remember him?  I suppose it doesn't matter.  Even if you don't know about the poor sap who got sand kicked in his face at the beach because he was a weakling, you can still be impressed by my makeshift pie weights.


They did work.  The sides of the pie crust stayed firm and did not sink down into the bottom of the pan, as has often happened in the past.  It seems to me that there are more unfixable things that can go wrong with a pie than with any other kind of dessert.  Once a pie has slumped down into its shell, there's just no good remedy.


There is nothing instructive about this photo.  It's just golden syrup dripping slowly out of the bottle, but I like the shot.  It either looks like blown glass or like aliens.


Cooking the egg yolks, brown sugar, golden syrup and butter.  It doesn't look like a diet dessert, does it?


I'm actually pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  I could have fit some more pecans on top, but this is good enough.  I can't believe the crust hasn't folded in on itself, as it usually does.  I think that I can serve this to my friends after all, and not have to rely on Plan B, which was getting them drunk.

I didn't make the chocolate lace topping, both because I was running out of time and because I am kind of a pecan pie purist.  Topping a pecan pie with whipped cream is what a purist does.  However, I might try the lace topping at some later date because it does sound as if it would be very attractive.

This post makes me want to recommend three things to you, in order of ease and likelihood of accomplishment:
1.  Make the frozen pecan tart, and, if you don't mind, tell me your opinion of the usefulness of the "frozen" part.
2.  Watch The Motorcycle Diaries, while eating pecan pie and drinking Malbec, if possible.
3.  Go to Argentina, where you will probably not eat pecan pie but you'll have a good time anyway.

23 comments:

  1. Marie your frozen pecan tart pi looks absolutely wonderful ,love your pictures they're beautiful ,It looks very delicious and your write up is great.

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  2. I like Plan B. If it didn't need to be frozen, mine probably would have turned out better.

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  3. Marie, I remember Charles Atlas and those cartoons about the 98-pound weakling on the beach (I think I AM that weakling now...)! Anyway, your photos look great and so did the tart! I used regular pie crust, and although it didn't slice well when frozen it tasted fantastic. Loved the Motorcycle Diaries, made me wish I had paid more attention in Spanish class in high school! Best wishes for the new year--Michele

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  4. Marie, I thought the reason why it needs to be frozen is because the filling is too soft in the fridge or room temperature. I was quite impressed that I could eat the tart in less than 5 minutes after it's been taken out of the freezer and didn't hurt my teeth at all. Ice cream, though I love it, often makes me wince because it's too cold.

    Your reunion sounds fun! And a hilarious write up! Love the close up shot of the golden syrup - it does look like blown glass (except way cheaper :)).

    I'd love to do No.3! I've never been to South America!

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  5. This would be a great tart for Argentina--as I experienced it, the whole Argentine notion of dessert is 'how tooth-achingly sweet can we make it? Then can we add some more dulce de leche?'

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  6. You're so funny. I think the filling needs to stay frozen because it's too soft to serve unfrozen because I noticed my tart started to ooze a bit as it sat at room temp. I was pleasantly surprised how soft the texture of the frozen filling was when I cut into the tart. When you get a chance, stop by to see my post.

    Patricia @ ButterYum
    http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2014/12/21/tbb-frozen-pecan-tart

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  7. I didn't really get the frozen part either and was shocked that it didn't freeze all the way through (all the sugar, I guess?). But I thought the tart was delicious and beautiful! I love making pies and tarts so will definitely add this to my 'holiday pie' list :)

    Next time we'll definitely break out the Malbec (my husband's fave) to drink with the pie!

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  8. I'll have to stick to your #1, which is all I can handle, and my answer is 'none that I can see". Mine got eaten semi-frozen to thawed, and I heard no comments indicating that frozen added anything.

    I would say that not being quite so much a purist, the chocolate topping was a nice addition. Bourbon whipped cream would also have been a good idea. :)

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    1. Anytime booze is involved in baking its a good idea.

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  9. Do I get points for having done 2 & 3? Argentina no pecans.. but plenty of Malbec - which wins over the pecans in my book. As far as number 1, was I the only one that felt the filling was just right at room temperature? in fact I left it out, and we finish the left over today for breakfast and it was just as delish as the day before, when I served it with pistachio ice cream (double wammy of nuts!)

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  10. ב''ה

    Your hilarious.

    I love when you imagine your food gives you a hard time.

    Have fun on vacation.

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  11. At first I thought you meant the mythological figure Atlas (who had to hold up the world so was appropriate for an analogy to pie weights) but was confused by the name Charles - do mythological figures have first names? :-)

    Very nice looking tart.

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  12. Hi Marie, I think the reason why the tart "needs" to be frozen is that it's a way to cut the sweetness. Cold or frozen deserts seize the sugars, which is why it's best to serve deserts (and wine too) only slightly cool or at room temperature. I think I read this in Rose's Cake Bible. Anyway, your post was fun to read. Loved the sugar shot, and the Motorcycle Diaries, and Malbec!

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  13. On a side note, isn't that little Argentine actor who plays his friend just the cutest thing ever? Rodrigo De la Serna...sigh.

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    1. I really like the actor who played Chi. He's adorable. I wonder if he dances tango?

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    2. Gael Garcia Bernal? He's Mexican, but any man of sense should learn to tango, no?

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    3. Katya, I had my husband learn to tango... and that is what we dance in our wedding.

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  14. Marie! (et al) once again i find myself wishing so much i was your neighbor. what fun we would have. what fun you already have! let me explain why it is frozen: amazingly and due to the high sugar content, it does not freeze hard which means you get a fudgier texture and the convenience of having a pie that keeps for many weeks and can be cut frozen at any given moment when one is seized with the desire to have a piece (Woody adds with some Malbec--i saw either way--with or without). NOW, the reason i thought to create it as a frozen dessert is because when something sweet is frozen it is perceived as less sweet and many people find pecan pie cloyingly sweet. first i addressed this with adding cream and cutting sugar. then i used Muscovado which has flavors other than just sweetness. and THEN the coup de grace so to speak (you bring this out in me!) is the golden syrup. it should not be necessary to freeze and, in fact, refrigerating is an excellent compromise but for those who would like a tad less sweetness the freezer's the thing.
    Jim, Wood likes your use of your new macro lens and, big news, thanks to you we bought Adobe Light room as a holiday present to us and to everyone who sees our blog photos.

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    1. I loveeeee Adobe Lightroom.. I will be LOST without it. this is a great site with awesome tutorial... http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/tag/adobe-lightroom-tutorial/

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  15. Marie, I love your (or Jim's) close up of the golden syrup--and I'm going to vote aliens. I liked the tart frozen; it was less gooey.

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  16. I like how you used the pot cover to cut the round! Your tart looks amazing! I think frozen is to make it less sweet...i find that desserts that are frozen somehow becomes less sweet... Maybe i should try..

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  17. I mean try making it.. but i worry it being too sweet...somehow over here, dunno if it is for health reason or what.. but seems like our tastebuds tolerance for sweetness level is rather low.

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  18. Hilarious! Yellow syrup even more gorgeous in motion. The final picture looked really delicious with its beautiful color and texture, and of course the contrasting soft white cream.

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