Pear Tart With Almond Shortbread Crust 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 TARTE TATIN WITH SHORTBREAD CRUST

Steps:

• FOR THE CRUST
• In a food processor, combine the butter, flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Pulse until it looks like finely grated Parmigiano cheese. Add the egg yolk and 1 to 2 tablespoons cold water, and pulse, pulse, pulse until the mixture comes together into a ball. If it seems a bit dry, add 1 more tablespoon water and pulse a few more times.
• Dump the mixture out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead it once or twice, until it comes together in a smooth ball. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to an even circle, 11 to 12 inches in diameter. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.
• FOR THE FILLING
• Preheat the oven to 425°F.
• Place the sugar, 3 tablespoons water, the lemon juice, and cinnamon stick in a 10-inch ovenproof, nonstick sauté pan. Bring to medium heat and stir to combine.
• Raise the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil (BTB), brushing down the sides of the pan occasionally with a pastry brush dipped in water. After 7 to 8 minutes the mixture will begin to turn light brown. Swish the pan around gently to promote even cooking and cook the mixture for 1 to 2 more minutes, or until it turns a deeper amber color. Keep your eye on this and don't walk away; the sugar can burn quickly if you're not paying attention.
• Remove the pan from the heat, add 1 tablespoon heavy cream, and whisk to combine. Discard the cinnamon stick.
• Whisk in the butter 2 pats at a time. The mixture will bubble up, but that's okay, just be VERY CAREFUL not to let it splatter and burn you. When all of the butter has been incorporated, begin to arrange the pears in concentric circles as neatly and prettily as you can-remember, you're going to flip it out.
• Return the pan to the stove and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• TO ASSEMBLE THE TART
• Remove the pastry from the fridge, carefully drape it over the top of the pears, and tuck the pastry around the edges of the pan. Bake the tart for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown and crispy.
• Let the tart cool for 10 to 15 minutes, then place a serving platter upside down on top of the pastry and CAREFULLY flip the platter and pan over, letting the tart fall gently out of the pan.
• Place the remaining heavy cream in a medium bowl and, using an electric mixer or a whisk and good old-fashioned elbow grease, whisk the heavy cream to soft peaks. Slice the tart and serve garnished with the whipped cream.
• DON'T FEAR THE CARAMEL!
• Making caramel can be a little scary but once you get the hang of it, it's fun. Start by putting sugar in a large saucepan and giving yourself a couple of insurance policies-some acid, like lemon juice, and some water. These two ingredients help the caramel cook without recrystallizing or burning super-quickly.
• Then bring the pan to medium-high heat and let it rip. When you see the sugar start to turn a shade of amber, don't walk away-things can go south very quickly and if the sugar burns, there's no recovery. Once the sugar is one shade past amber and heading toward brown, pour in the heavy cream, reduce the heat to low, and stand back-the mixture will bubble up like crazy. This is why it's really important to use a large saucepan-you don't want it to overflow when you add the cream and the mixture bubbles up. This stuff is molten!!! It can cause a really severe burn if you're not careful.
• Once the bubbles calm down, swirl in the butter a couple pats at a time. Be sure not to add more until each addition is melted. You've made caramel!
• ANNE ALTERNATE
• You can totally use apples here instead of pears. I recommend Granny Smith or any other tart, firm apple. I also recommend using fruit that's not quite ripe because it's going to get really soft as it cooks.

CRANBERRY PEAR TART WITH GINGERBREAD CRUST

Steps:

• Make pear mixture: In a saucepan, combine cranberry juice, sugar, cinnamon stick and lemon juice.
• Bring to boil and add pears.
• Heat until it just comes to simmer and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, or until the pears are just tender.
• Remove from heat, stir in cranberries and let mixture cool.
• Chill, covered, for at least 8 hours.
• (may be made 2 days in advance) Crust: Blend together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt.
• Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• In a small bowl, stir together egg yolk and the molasses.
• Add to flour mixture and mix until combined well but still crumbly.
• Turn out onto 10 inch tart pan with removable rim and press onto bottom and up sides of pan.
• Chill crust for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Prick crust all over with fork, line with foil, fill with pie weights or dry beans, and bake in lower third of oven for 15 minutes.
• Remove foil and pie weights and bake crust a further 10 minutes.
• Let cool.
• Transfer poached pears and half the cranberries with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, discard cinnamon, and reserve syrup with remaining cranberries.
• In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, sour cream, milk, vanilla, zest and a pinch of salt.
• Stir in the drained cranberries.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Spoon half of custard into the crust.
• Slice 4 of the pear halves crosswise on the diagonal, arrange decoratively over the custard alternately with the unsliced pear halves, and spoon remaining custard around pears.
• Bake tart in middle of oven for 50-55 minutes or until custard is just set.
• Remove rim of pan and let cool.
• (may be made up to 8 hours in advance, cooled completely and chilled) Boil reserved syrup until reduced to 1 cup and is jelly-like in consistency and transfer cranberries with slotted spoon to a plate to cool.
• Brush pears with some of cranberry glaze and arrange cranberries around edge of tart.
• Serve warm or chilled.

CINNAMON ALMOND SHORTBREAD PEAR

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 150°C/300oF/Mark2.
• Line oven trays with baking parchment and put the tray in the oven.
• In a large bowl sifted flour, cinnamon and almond meal. Mix well. Set aside.
• In another bowl beat butter, caster sugar and vanilla essence until light and creamy.
• Combine flour mixture and butter mixture, (may need to use hands) to form a dough.
• Roll the mixture into a large plum size or walnut sized balls and then shape each ball into a pear. (The more smaller you make them the more cloves you would need).
• Place the base of the clove (star shape end) on the top of the pear to the form the core.
• Place the pears on hot tray and bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until pale golden. (Please note if you are making them plum size baked them for 12 minutes or until pale golden, but if you are making walnut size it would be quicker).
• Remove tray and allow pears to stand on trays for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.
• Dust lightly with icing sugar. Store.
• Note: Please let everyone who is eating the shortbread pear knows it's a real clove on the top because they may want to remove it before eating.

PEAR TART WITH SHORTBREAD CRUST

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) and place a rack in the center of the oven. Spray a 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
• Place flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse to blend together. Add butter and pulse until dough just begins to come together.
• Pat the dough onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while making the filling.
• Process cream cheese in the food processor until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Blend in egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Spread filling over the chilled crust. Arrange pear halves on top.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; sprinkle over pears.
• Bake tart in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) and bake until crust is browned and filling is almost set, 25 to 30 minutes more.
• Cool tart for about 20 minutes on a wire rack. Run a sharp, thin knife around the edges to remove the springform ring. Cool to room temperature before serving.