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.

Easter Weekend

It's been a busy weekend...I have several posts in the hopper...just need to finish add photos or finalizing the recipes. The big event of the weekend...? I started Friday night by assembling a giant lasagna for a very special Saturday Event of Ultimate Geekdom...Joyous joined J-lo and I for a full day marathon of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica!!! We managed to sustain ourselves for 11 hours before admitting defeat...7 more episodes to go...but we will do it...Season 4 starts on April 4.

The lasagna was pretty dang good. There's 3/4th's of a pan left...guess what we're eating for lunches this week.

Yesterday, Easter, we did some stuff around the house. Worked in the gardens, raked leaves, set up the new cheap-o patio furniture...it's nothing special, but it's a starter set that will get a few; 2-3 years of wear out of. Then we headed to a lovely Easter celebration with Lord, Lady & Princess B. I brought the Pear and Vanilla Brown Butter Crisp. Divine! What fun. I used three types of pears and added a light pinch of Cardamom to the topping. Very very subtle, but very very nice.

I Gots The Giggles

I love when I give myself the giggles...and it wasn't the bubbly either....

It started with the vanilla.

Which I opened up to release the flavorful goodies inside.

Tee hee...then there was the Irish butter. Ha!

Ultimately those beautiful things were added to some fresh pears.
Looking good! Luscious. Sweet. Subtle.

Get that whole mess into small ramekin dishes.

Top with some more butter, oats and brown sugar.

Bake for awhile. Tender. Aromatic. Sweet. Buttery.

While slightly warm, serve with homemade cardamom ice cream.

Giggle and cry at the same time. Seriously. It's that good.

Butter.
Browned Butter.
Vanilla.
Vanilla Browned Butter.
Pears.

Pear and Vanilla Browned Butter Crisp!

Sweet Sweet Nirvana.


from Gourmet (10/2007), via Smitten Kitchen, and altered a bit by me

For topping:
1/4 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 TB butter, melted

(The original topping had almonds and more flour...I didn't have almonds, so I went with a more traditional oat topping.)

For filling:
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 TB granulated sugar
1 TB all-purpose flour
3 firm-ripe Anjou or Bartlett pears, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 TB pear vodka (if you have it), recipe called for pear brandy, which I didn't have.

Equipment: 4 small ramekins

Make topping: Toss together flour, otas, brown sugar, and salt. Drizzle butter, toss with a fork until blended. Place in the fridge until ready to use.

Make filling and bake crisps: Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into a small heavy saucepan, then add pod and butter and cook over medium-low heat, swirling pan occasionally, until butter is browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes.

While butter browns, stir together sugars, flour, and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add pears and vodka and toss to combine.

Discard vanilla pod, then toss butter with pear mixture. Spoon filling into gratin dishes and sprinkle with topping, mounding it slightly in centers. Put in a shallow baking pan and bake 30 minutes, then rotate baking sheet and bake until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes more. Cool to warm or room temperature on a rack.

Make-ahead tips: The topping can made in advance, chilled and covered for up to 2 days. The crisps can be assembled (but not baked) 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring them room temperature before baking.