Lady Tartterly is My Lovah

We're going to make a tart. It is delicious and you will love it.

You need a perfect crust for your tart. In this instance we have flour, butter, sugar and salt.

Pulse those ingredients in your food processor until the texture of coarse corn meal. You want the butter cut into small pieces, which when placed in the hot oven will melt and release a small burst of steam, making for a light, flavorful crust.

To kick things up a bit, we add one egg yolk and...some riesling!

Continue to pulse until the dough starts to come together into clumps. Give it a minute or two, I thought it wasn't going to come together and was about to add a little more riesling, when all of a sudden, the clumps appeared. Pour the clumps out onto the counter, onto a sheet of plastic wrap.

Form the clumps into a disk. Wrap and place in the fridge for about an hour or overnight. After the dough has chilled out, you can roll out flat and make a rustic tart, or you can use a tart pan. I have a tart pan and rarely use it, so I used the tart pan.

For this tart, I used three pears, a little sugar, flour, cardamom and cinnamon. After getting mixed together, I poured into the tart shell and for giggles added two tablespoons of butter bits on the top of the pears.

The tart is baked for about 25-30 minutes, when the fruit was tender and the crust starting to turn a light brown.

Slice and serve with some fresh whipped cream. Mmmm. The crust was like a giant butter cookie. The pears were sweet and lightly flavored with the cinnamon and cardamom. Hover your plate and enjoy!

Pear Tart
adapted from Epicurious.com

Crust
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon Riesling

Filling
3 large ripe pears, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cardamom and cinnamon


For crust:
Blend flour, sugar, and salt in processor until combined. Add butter; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg yolk and wine; using on/off turns, mix just until moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 40 minutes and up to 2 days.

For filling:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F.

Press the dough into a tart pan or roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 12-inch round. Remove top sheet of parchment and transfer dough, with bottom parchment, to rimmed baking sheet.

Place pear slices, 1 tablespoon sugar, and flour in large bowl; toss to combine. Spoon pear mixture into center of tart pan or dough, If using dough, leave 1 1/2-inch border. Using parchment as aid, fold up outer edge of dough over edge of filling.

Bake until pears are tender, about 25 minutes.


If you would like to make a light glaze for the top of your tart, boil 1/2 cup of riesling and 1/4 cup of sugar until reduced and starting to thicken. Lightly brush the glaze over the top of your tart.