Chocolate pecan torteAka CPT. From Olims Hotel in Canberra, modified with experience Prepare a shortpaste flan ring about ten inches across. Don't cheat by using one of those 400g ready-made pastry packs: use one and a half of them. Better still, make two pies from three. For each pie, mix by hand three eggs, 300g of castor sugar, 180g of unsalted butter, a few drops of vanilla essence, and a pinch of salt. Lick your hands clean. Chop up 150g of chocolate very finely, and 150g of pecan nuts not so finely, add 100g of flour, and mix the whole caboodle together. Or, if you don't want to cover the ceiling with chocolate, melt the butter and chocolate together then mix in the rest: this improves the result, but's less fun. Place mixture in the flan ring, and bake for about an hour at 180°C. The pie is cooked when the top cracks when pressed. It is overcooked when the flan case cracks without being pressed. Serve hot or cold, with or without crème fraîche, at any time of day or night Tips: Freeze/cool the pastry rings. Microwave butter and chocolate for 2'30" on medium per pie. Put aluminium strips around the flan edges, removing a quarter of an hour before done. |