This tart was made late Saturday night, and it was all gone by midnight Sunday. No, I did not eat it all but, I could have. Instead, I shared it with the first neighbors and friends I ran into. That being said, if you’re my neighbor or friend, please don’t camp out at our door looking for baked goods. Only joking, I’ll set up a tent for you in the driveway. Stop by anytime. If I have it, I’ll share.

The recipe and detailed instructions are at the end of this post. For this recipe, we need chocolate, heavy cream, butter, powdered sugar, an egg, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, pecans, and cajeta. Looks like we have it all. Ready, set, bake…

The crust takes the most time in this recipe. If you wanted, you could always make the crust(s) ahead of time and then just fill them when needed.

Start by creaming the butter and sugar in a mixer with a paddle until smooth. Add the eggs slowly until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla. Add the flour in 3 stages just until combined.

Place the dough between pieces of parchment paper and flatten. Rest the dough in the refrigerator for about half an hour or until firm. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Make sure you have enough dough by placing your tart pan on top of the rolled out dough.

Return the tart pan to the fridge for 15 minutes. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and cool. I removed the outer ring of the tart form once the tart had cooled. You can leave this on until it’s time to cut the tart if you’re afraid you might break the sides of the tart when filling it.

Mix the nuts and cajeta in a bowl. Spread this mixture in an even layer in the baked tart shell. I used the back of a metal spoon to smooth the layer as much as possible.

If you are unfamiliar with cajeta, it’s a Mexican confection of sugar and milk that has been caramelized. You can make your own or buy it pre-made in the store, look for it next to the sweetened condensed milk.

Now to make the ganache. It is actually very simple to make. Heat your cream to simmering and then pour the cream over the top of the chopped chocolate. Stir with a spoon and soon you’re left with a warm thick frosting-like texture of chocolate. The most important things are not to burn the cream and to pour the cream over the chocolate rather than putting the chocolate into the cream.

You will want to use the best quality chocolate you can afford. I used Callebaut 60% bittersweet, in a block, from Wholefoods. It was only $4 for half a pound (8 oz). If I were to buy 8 ounces of those nice chocolate bars you see in the baking aisle it would have been twice as much, and not as high of quality.

Pour the ganache over the top of the spread out pecans and cajeta. Use an offset spatula to smooth out the top.

Let set in refrigerator until firm, cut with a warm knife, cleaning knife with a cloth between each cut. You can cut it into 8 large pieces or 16 smaller pieces.