All content copyright Katrina Hall 2008 through 2025

Monday, March 2, 2009

pear tarts





Once again, we are getting a huge snowfall. Everyone is tucked up into their houses ( except for the plowmen) - and I was no exception. I continued to go through a large pile of old recipes, where I found this one for pear tarts. As I had all the ingredients, I put it together quickly, baked it, and critiqued it. I've become more adventurous these days, and found it to be a little bland, but I'll fix that next time with a brushing of red currant jelly under the pears, and a sprinkling of toasted walnuts or pecans on top.
This is a tart with a soft, cake like crust. You press the dough into tartlet pans, or one larger pie tin - no rolling required. You can put it together quickly for a nice breakfast treat, or for dessert. And I have used plums instead of pears, equally tasty.
To make:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Lightly grease small tart pans, or a pie pan.
For topping:
In mixer bowl:
1/2 t. ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. salt
1 t. grated lemon zest
2 T. butter, cold, cut into small cubes
Mix the spices, salt, lemon zest, and sugar together. Add the butter and mix until crumbly.
Scrape into a small bowl and set aside.
Pears:
2 pears, cored , quartered, and very thinly sliced
Dough:
1 cup King Arthur flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1-2 T. topping sugar mixture
3 T. cold butter, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup milk
red currant jelly ( optional)
handful of chopped toasted walnuts/pecans for top (optional)
Mix up the dough and divide in equal pieces for the tartlet pans, or pat into the bottom of the pie plate.
(Optional: brush dough with red currant jelly)
Arrange pears in decorative circle, or however you wish.
Sprinkle pears with topping sugar thickly and top with walnuts or pecans, if you wish.
Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.
Remove to a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes, then remove from rings. If using a pie plate, you will obviously leave it as is.
Enjoy for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or snack. This is great for kids to make - with your supervision!


8 comments:

Martha said...

I love pears and pear tarts -- will have to try these "babys" soon!

Anonymous said...

Sweet baby tarts, Martha, yes indeed! I realize the past year I've been all about pears - photos, recipes, tarts, poached, made into jam. I've done more pear posts than even peaches, which I absolutely LOVE. Pears are so decorative and pretty it's hard to resist them....
Hope your day was snow free!

Maria said...

Love the pear tarts. I hope you are staying warm!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Maria! The wind is pretty gusty and chilly, but I think the snow has finally ended, thank goodness. Can we hope for Spring sometime in the next 6 months?

Love pears. Just love them - will we ever tire of their gorgeousness?

Anonymous said...

Katrina, these look delicious. My youngest child adores pears and we order some specialty pears for him every Christmas. He's always thrilled with them. I know he will love these tarts too! Can't wait to try them.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you, Donna! The next time I make these tarts, I think I'll experiment with thicker slices - and maybe a little Frangelico - I love the hazelnut notes, but then, I love vanilla, too. Much to play with, here - always my favorite part of cooking and baking!

Maris said...

Mmm this looks really good. I've been loving pears lately - especially poached pears in spinach salad. I have no doubt I'd love this tart though!

Anonymous said...

Maris, I have no idea what happened, but last summer I was given some semi-wild pears and started experimenting ( see the pears poached in lemon verbena syrup somewhere here) - and I, too, fell in love with pears. I've been eating Anjou's all winter and dream of another batch of those juicy, tasty pears I was given. Poached pears in spinach salad sounds delicious!