Nom nom nom

We all know that Easter is The Australian Chocolate Festival. So to get into the spirit of things, and to go with a Mexican meal, I made this Mexican Chocolate Tart with Cinnamon-Spiced Pecans. It may have accidentally become a double batch ... mainly because my spring-form cake pan is large, while the recipe calls for a small one (9" across). Oh dear how sad never mind.

First of all, whip up sugar, egg white, cinnamon and cayenne pepper (yup) and add in your pecans.


Bake for about 10 minutes ... these are seriously delicious, the cayenne pepper isn't overwhelming, just adds a bit of heat. A bit like chilli chocolate. Nice as a snack any time, I reckon!


Then make the biscuit base (yay for food processors!) and bake ...


Time for the Mexican chocolate (found at The Essential Ingredient, in Kingston) and a block of bittersweet chocolate.


Whisk the chocolates into hot cream... (I never said this was good for you, it's just good ;)


Oooh yummy. Add in lots of vanilla and cinnamon. Pour into the prepared tin. Refrigerate.


When it's set partially, place the pecans on top.


After some more hours, carefully remove the tin and paper lining, dust with icing sugar. Serve THIN slices with cream and berries (my addition).


You want the recipe, don't you? Here it is!

My notes :

Firstly, read the Review section of the recipe. Very helpful.

Cook the pecans for MUCH less than the 30 minutes stated in the recipe. 10 minutes at 160º fan forced worked well for me.

For the crust I used Arnotts' Choc Ripple biscuits. I didn't have enough crust to go up the sides (as I was using a large tin), but lining the tin with baking paper did the trick, the filling didn't drip out, and it's solid enough to stand up by itself. Bake the crust for a bit less than the recipe calls for, too.

If you can't find Mexican chocolate, substitute 30g semisweet chocolate, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1 drop almond extract for 30g of Mexican chocolate.

Be warned, this is exceedingly rich! A single batch is easily enough for 8 people...

Happy Easter all - I hope the Easter Bilby was good to you :)