Post by Cherry on Jan 19, 2011 20:06:09 GMT
PEAR AND FRANGIPANE TART:
PASTRY
225g plain flour
110g butter
110g caster sugar
3 medium egg yolks, lightly beaten
FRANGIPANE
125g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
2eggs
125g ground almonds
1 tbsp plain flour
POACHED PEARS
250g caster sugar, plus 2 tsp extra
4 good-sized pears
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
3 cloves
1/2 lemon
2-3 strips thickly pared orange zest
1/2 vanilla pod
1. Make the pastry. You may need to add 1 tsp cold water if the dough is very crumbly. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes.
2. Make the frangipane. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in eggs, then fold in flour and ground almonds. Chill until needed.
3. Poach the pears. Dissolve the sugar in 500ml water over medium heat. Peel the pears and add to pan with other ingredients. Add more water if needed to cover pears and then weight pears to keep submerged. I used a pyrex souffle dish. Simmer for 15 mins then remove with slotted spoon. Leave them to cool. Do not overcook the pears at this stage as they will continue to cook in the oven.
4. Preheat oven to 170 deg fan/gas 5. Roll pastry out and line the tart tin. It will break up as it is very short and crumbly, but just patch it together in the tin and mould it up the sides. Trim off excess and spread the frangipane evenly on top.
5. Cut the pears in half lengthways and, using a teaspoon, scoop out and discard the core from the centre. Then cut each pear half in slices, widthways. Lift onto the knife and push down on the pears slightly to fan them out. Lift into the pastry case and arrange in a circle. Fill in gaps with a few more slices.
6. Bake for 50-55 mins until pastry golden and filling set. Sprinkle with the extra 2 tsps caster sugar and bake for further 15 mins to finish off the browning. Cool a little in tin before removing to wire rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature with creme fraiche.
Use a 23 x 2.5cm fluted loose-bottomed flan tin.
MY TIPS:
Freeze the leftover egg whites for pavlova.
At Step 2, I had to put the flour in with the eggs to stop the mixture curdling.
At Step 3, I found this amount of liquid was fine for a double quantity, and I did not have all the ingredients. I did have some frozen lemon zest, but I would not do without the cinnamon stick.
I used less sugar at every stage.
When I doubled the quantity, I used 5 egg yolks in the pastry instead of 6, and added a little water. This was because I only had this amount of eggs and it worked a treat.
The double quantity made a large and two small foil tart tins which were ideal for the freezer.
I tested this for freezing and it froze very well.
It took me ages to make, so I would make a double quantity every time.
