Recipe: Double Chocolate Tart with Black Pepper Ice Cream

Double Chocolate Tart with Black Pepper Ice Cream
Bon Appetit, Sept 2011, p.131
4.5 stars

This recipe is from Lauren Fortgang, the pastry chef at Le Pigeon in Portland, OR.

Now this dessert is one you should serve to your foodie friends.  Talk about interesting flavors. . .

Tips:

• The store was out of whole skinned hazelnuts so we substituted them for macadamia nuts.  Bummer since the hazelnuts would have imparted a Nutella-like flavor to the dessert.
• Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers are not readily available anymore.  I used Keebler fudge wafers instead.
• Bake time is about 12 min, not 15.
• Be sure to set aside a lot of time -- candying the nuts takes almost an hour active time.
• The ice cream was so peppery!  Next time, I'm going to reduce the amount of pepper in half and make regular vanilla ice cream base, instead of their ice cream recipe which calls for 9 large egg yolks.
• Take the dessert out of the freezer and put it in the fridge at least a few hours before you serve it.

Overall, a really nice dinner party worthy dessert!