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
