Sunday, January 17, 2016

Clean Sweep Week at MLK! Pear Tart #Recipe @PegCochran

Ah, the New Year. Ah, the fridge and pantry, cluttered with leftovers, food gifts we don’t quite know how to use, and impulse buys that leave us scratching our heads, wondering what on earth we’d planned to do with them. It’s Clean Sweep week on the blog, as we share our attempts to use up a few of those odd bits and ingredients. We hope we inspire you to make good use of a few of the curious finds in your cabinets.  

We have a plethora of pears at our house all ripening faster than we can eat them.  This delicious bounty is thanks to lovely gifts from Harry & David this Christmas.  I needed to do something with the ones that were a hair past ripe and on their way to rotten.  I couldn't bear to see them go to waste.

I thought a pear tart might be the answer.  Unfortunately most recipes called for ground almonds and orange marmalade and I didn't have any almonds.  I'd already made two trips to the grocery store--the first time I realized, as I pulled into a parking place, that I'd forgotten my purse.  I know--what woman forgets her purse??!!  So it was back home again and then back to the store.  All this to say I was NOT going out again.

All the recipes that didn't require almonds called for apricot preserves, and I didn't have any apricot preserves.  So I took a few liberties and combined some recipes to make a tart without almonds but with orange marmalade.

Here are the results:

Pate Brisee (Short Crust Dough)
Recipe compliments of Lydie Marshall's Chez Nous

This is one of my favorite dough recipes--always so easy to work with.

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (one stick)
1 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Cut butter into small pieces and put in freezer for five minutes.  Combine butter, flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor.  Process for ten seconds.  Add water (2 tablespoons if it's humid and three if it's dry weather) and process around 10 seconds until mixture looks like cornmeal.



Dump mixture out onto counter and with the heel of your hand, use a sliding motion to incorporate the butter and flour the rest of the way.  Form a disc and cover with wax paper or plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for fifteen minutes.



Roll dough into a circle and place in tart pan.  Roll rolling pin over the top to cut off extra dough.


Fill tart shell with pears.  Mine were so overripe that it wasn't possible to make the pretty circles you see on tarts in fancy bakeries.

Heat 1/2 cup orange marmalade and brush over top of tart.




Ready for the oven.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place tart on lower rack and reduce heat to 400 degrees.  (Be sure to put a cookie sheet under your tart pan for easy removal from oven.)


 Breathe in delicious smells! Certainly better than letting the pears go to waste.


Warm tart would be delicious topped with ice cream or whipped cream but see my note about not going back to the store!



Lucille and Flo are back in the fourth Lucille Series book -- A Room with a Pew

A reviewer said:  "I love this series. The characters to me are so real that I feel that I might know some of them...In addition to their sleuthing to find Louis' killer, Lucille has to deal with her husband's diet to get his cholesterol under control. Also Lucille is trying the Mediterranean diet, and her thoughts about this are just too, too funny.  It's always a joy to visit with Lucille, her family and friends.  This series gives you a laugh on practically every page."

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Coming May 2016 - Berry the Hatchet



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Available now as an audio book - Berried Secrets
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15 comments:

  1. Love this series!! Thanks for the recipe!!

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  2. Looks great! We don't need no stinkin' apricot preserves (but I do have lingonberry, black currant, and homemade apple jelly).

    It occurs to me that maybe we should have called this week's posts The McGyver Menu (if our readers are old enough to remember that series).

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    1. McGyver Menu is right! I must say many nights at our house are like that!

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  3. Thanks for sharing this recipe! I love, love, love pears! I'd probably use them to make pear sauce in the slow cooker (basically applesauce with pears, instead) or a pie. This tart sounds good, but I'd probably use something besides orange marmalade (not a fan). :)

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    1. I never thought of pear sauce! I bet that's absolutely delicious. I'm going to have to try that. Do you add any spices to it?

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  4. Gorgeous tart, Peg. Beautiful use of your holiday pears and a sweet kick-off to Clean Sweep week. Cheers and have a delicious Sunday...

    ~ Cleo

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  5. Hi Peg! Rolled out pie dough and I have a love-hate relationship (I love to eat it, but hate the fact that I can never seem to get it just right – lol!). But your recipe sounds so yummy I might have to give it a another try. I do love pears! Happy Sunday! Nicole :-)

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    1. Nicole, this recipe for dough is very easy to work with and comes out great. I love tarts because I am hopeless at making my pie crusts look pretty. My fluted edge always shrink and ends up looking wrinkled!

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    2. That's exactly what happens to me (fluted edge), even after covering the edges. Thanks for the recipe, I'll definitely try it! :-)

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  6. This sounds absolutely wonderful. I've made it with apples but never pears. Must try!

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  7. So simple...well once you get past the crust. I imagine any favorite jam/marmalade would work.
    It sounds like a real winner.
    I like the McGyver idea. I often do that with leftovers from the 'frig. Hm, what would go with that?...

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  8. Hey, if someone would send me a box of pears, I'd happily make this! And who needs almonds anyway? (Well, me. But at Thanksgiving, I made pecan pie cookies with walnuts because I am so with you about those trips to the grocery store!)

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