Pear Almond Flapjack Tart Food

PEAR AND ALMOND TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• In a mixing bowl cream butter with sugar until fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in egg. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Mix in brandy and vanilla. Add almond and all-purpose flours. Mix until creamy. Cover and refrigerate. Place almond filling into tart shell, spread level. Cut poached pear halves crosswise into 1/4-inch slices. Reshape pear halves and arrange 8 halves around the top of each tart, "spoke" fashion. Press pears lightly to fan out. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is well browned and filling is springy to the touch. Cool and serve at room temperature.
• Note: To poach pears, peel, core and halve pears, place in a pot with 1 3/4 cups white wine, 3/4 cup water, 4 ounces of sugar, 1 cinnamon stick, vanilla bean split, and 4 black pepper corns. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer, cook for 30 minutes or until pears are tender when pricked. Cool in liquid.
• In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar and salt, cut in butter until it resembles small pebbles. With a mixer running add vanilla and slowly drizzle in water until dough comes together in a sticky mass. Roll into a ball, wrap and chill at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours before rolling. Roll shell to fit into a 9-inch tart pan. Set aside.;

PEAR AND ALMOND TART

Steps:

• Melt the butter with the sugar in a large frying pan and cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has become a golden-brown caramel.
• Add the pear halves and cook, turning once, until caramelised all over. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• For the pastry, place the plain flour, butter and sugar into a food processor and pulse together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the egg and pulse until the mixture just comes together as a dough. Add a little milk if required.
• Remove the dough from the food processor and roll to form a ball. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 40 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and unwrap. Roll the pastry out on a clean, floured work surface to line a 20cm/8in tart tin. Transfer to the oven to bake for ten minutes, or until golden-brown.
• For the filling, mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.
• Add one egg at a time to the butter mixture and mix well, before adding the next (this can be done in a food mixer) until all the eggs are mixed into the butter and sugar.
• Add the lemon zest, plain flour and ground almonds and mix well to combine.
• Spoon the filling into the baked pastry tin and press the caramelised pear halves into the filling, so that they are half-submerged.
• Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the filling is cooked through.
• For the chocolate sauce, place the butter, sugar, chocolate, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and water into a clean pan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce is thick and glossy.
• To serve, cut a piece of tart and place on a serving plate, top with the chocolate sauce and drizzle over the double cream.

PEAR AND ALMOND TART

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Beat together yolk and water with a fork and stir into flour mixture until combined well.
• Knead mixture gently in bowl with floured hands just until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 4 or 5 times more. Form dough into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk.
• Chill, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour.
• Make tart shell:
• Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round.
• Slide bottom of tart pan (separate from rim) under dough and set into rim of tart pan. Cut off excess dough, leaving 1/2-inch overhang, and fold overhang inward. Press dough against side of pan, pushing dough 1/4 inch above rim. Lightly prick bottom of shell all over with a fork and chill until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake until side is set and edge is pale golden, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Carefully remove weights and foil and bake shell until golden, 15 to 25 minutes more. Leave oven on.
• Make filling and bake tart:
• Put a heavy baking sheet in oven. Peel and core pears, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices. Toss pears with 1 tablespoon pear brandy in a bowl, then arrange, overlapping, in tart shell. Put a pie shield on tart pan or cover rim with foil and transfer to baking sheet in oven. Bake just until pears are barely tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Leave oven on.
• Whisk together eggs, yolk, sugar, vanilla, crème fraîche, a pinch of salt, and remaining 1 tablespoons pear brandy until smooth. Pour over pears.
• Bake until custard is just set 2 inches from edge, about 18 minutes. Remove from oven and remove pie shield.
• Make topping and finish baking tart:
• Stir together all topping ingredients, then gently sprinkle over custard and bake until top is pale golden, about 15 minutes more. Cool tart to warm or room temperature in pan on a rack.