Chocolate Pecan Tart-Chocolate with Francois

Susan over at Baking with Susan selected this month's recipe for our Chocolate with Francois group.  Francois Payard's recipes never seem simple or uncomplicated but this one actually surprised me. 

Candy the pecans, make the tart dough , make the filling and assemble -could this really be one of his recipes or an impostor ?  As I write this, my tart is about 10 minutes from being finished and it looks delicious.  Nothing blowing up, nothing drying out-really this must be an impostor recipe, it was just too simple !  It's like a French version of pecan pie but with chocolate and a sweet tart crust.

This recipe has shocked me, really.  I love his cookbook and I love the results of his recipes, but with a great deal of his recipes you must work, work , and work to get to the end results. And sometimes the results barely resemble his photos in the book.  But that's due to my inexperience I suppose, because no matter how they end up looking they always end up tasting wonderful. Guess I will have to work on my technique.

 If you want to tackle one of these, and I suggest you do, head over to Susan's blog for the recipe. And it really is a simple uncomplicated recipe.  J walked by the oven when I went to check the progress of my tart and said "Is that pecan and chocolate "? with such a sense of urgency and desire I thought I would have to post a sentry at the oven to protect my tart until it was finished !
It's beautiful to look at when it's finished baking-anyone would be ecstatic if you showed up with this as dessert. 

And the taste is divine, imagine pecan pie with a light sweet crust and milk chocolate melted in with the sugared pecans. You get that sweet stickiness of a pecan pie with the smooth chocolaty taste.  Susan added some espresso powder to her filling-I wish I would have thought of that.  I imagine it really enhanced the flavor of the chocolate.  Seriously, you should try this recipe-it's absolutely delicious and hard to eat just one piece.  Bon Appetit.