Fresh Ginger

I have to confess, this is my brother’s recipe.  He frequently gets in a pear tart mood for some reason when he visits.  Perhaps because he knows if he makes it, we will watch the kids (3 and 2) while he does.  I remember waking up one morning when he and my sister in law were staying over, to the sounds of the cupboards banging shut.  Open shut open shut.  I thought, what is he doing? When I eventually came downstairs to greet the day, he was in the middle of making a gluten free pear tart.  He had been searching for all the ingredients and walked to the local store (ok, it was a well stocked gas station) and back with two pears.  All before 9 am.  I guess this is what having kids does for you, gets you up early and motivated, or well, I would call it obsessed.  My bro and I are a lot alike in that when we get something in our head, like a craving, we have to finish it out and go get the dish or make it to remove the obsession.  I get that way about Thai and Korean food.  He gets that way about Korean food and pear tarts.

You haven’t even started drooling yet as you haven’t seen any pictures.  Hang on.  I will get you one.

Lately I have decided that I can’t wait for visits, I must have the pear tart more frequently. So, I have made it a couple of different times, using a homemade GF crust and a premade crust. The homemade is of course better as:

1. It tastes better.
2. You can do a lot more with the pear fanning.
3. The premade crust is really small and doesn’t oh and ah like the old ceramic tart pan.
4. Cause I said so, just believe me.

Unless of course you:

1. Don’t have a recipe for a homemade GF crust that you like.
2. Don’t have time but have a premade crust in your freezer.
3. Hate baking.

So, I have photos of both options for you. The both taste great although the premade crust is a bit over the top crunchy (read: hard and tough).

Pear Almond Tart
** if you can use equal weight of butter, sugar and almonds, that will be the best measurement**
5 Tbs butter
5 oz sugar (about 2/3 cup)
5 oz toasted and then ground almonds (or just buy almond flour) (about 1 and 1/4 cups ground)
2 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
2 – 3 pears (Bosc is my preference)

Cream the butter and sugar; add ground almonds; add eggs one at a time.
Pour into an uncooked crust. I used Rebecca Reilly’s Gluten Free crust recipe.
Top with fanned pear slices, sliced to about 1/4 inch thick.
Bake at 400 F for about an hour or golden brown. Let cool a bit and pour the glaze on.
For the glaze:
Mix maybe 1/4 cup of apricot jam in a pot with 2 Tbs of cognac and bring up to a boil or almost boil and then carefully pour it over the tart evenly. The glaze adds a nice tart contrast to the sweet pear and almond mixture. It also gives the tart more gloss and depth of color.

Happy Pear Week!

i’m out