Today, we are having some of the family around for dinner, these being the Winchcombes. Well some of them at least. Then there's mama and I, Cushla will probably be there, but in virtual form... who knows really?
These dinner's tend to be fantastically bazaar. Innuendos- subtle and not so subtle, laughter- all in kind spirit... most of the time, I'm normally the butt of the joke and lots of food and drinks.
So today, I got up and baked a new and improved Pear and Almond Tart. What's that you say? Yes I did bake a Pear and Almond Tart a few weeks ago, but that was a different recipe and after making it a few times, I decided it wasn't good enough, so I searched and searched and eventually found the old recipe that I used to use and now am using again.
So, I feel it is superior in every way and has a nicer texture.
This is a BBC Food Recipe from a chef called Simon Rimmer. I love this recipe and find it comforting and just down right yum.
The first thing you want to do is set the oven to preheat at 170C in a fan assisted oven.
Above is a guide to the different oven temperatures, according to what type of oven you have. I found this on the oven temperature site and have sourced the link above.
So I set the oven to 170C in a fan assisted electric oven. That means if you have a gas oven it would be 5. A convection oven it would be 190C.
So, we've preheated the oven, now we need to grease the tart tin. To do this, we need to get some melted butter (put a little butter into a microwave safe container and melt for 10 seconds.) Use this to coat the whole surface, rims and all in buttery goodness. Then lightly dust a little flour onto the tart tin to ensure the pastry won't stick.
The ingredients you'll need for the pastry;
- 225g Plain Flour- you can sift this if you like, but I don't really bother, there's nothing wrong with it. Unless there are grainy bits, then sift it please.
- 100g Unsalted Butter, cooled and chopped into little chunks
- 25g Caster Sugar
- 1 Free- Range Egg
This recipe says to add milk, but I didn't need it. If you do, it is 1tbsp.
I used my food processor to blitz this all together, but you could just use a bowl and a fork or your fingers. Although, it mightn't be a bad idea getting one, they are great and you can use them for pastes, sauces, dough, breadcrumbs... Need I go on? :)
Put the flour, sugar and butter chunks into the food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and mix slowly until the dough forms and comes together. Add milk if required.
Tip this out onto a floured, clean counter and gently knead until the dough is smooth and completely formed. Roll into a ball shape and then pat down with your hand until a flat oval shape. It doesn't matter how thick, as you will roll it out later. Wrap this in clingfilm and put into the fridge to chill and relax, maybe talk to the vegetables and ketchup?
I did it differently this time. Once the pastry is in the oven, it is kind of a race against time to get the batter done and the pears caramelised, so I cut the pressure and stress out and made the batter and pears whilst the pastry was cooling.
To make the batter you'll need;
- 225g Unsalted Butter
- 225g Caster Sugar
- 4 Free-Range Eggs
- 1 Lemon, Zest (I put two in as I love lemon)
- 50g Plain Flour
- 175g Ground Almonds
To make the pears;
- 4 Large Pears- Peeled, Sliced and Cored- alternatively buy tinned pear halves in their own juice, no syrup. This will save buckets of time.
- A knob of butter, enough to coat the pan you are caramelising in. Not too much, as it will turn into a butter bath, but also not too little as then it won't make any difference. You want these pears to be buttery and caramelised, you won't get that if you are stingy and hold the butter back like a weight watchers advocate. (No offense intended) Butter to me means no compromises.
- 50g Sugar or depending on your other ingredients, as much as you need to make it caramelise and bubble.
Get the pear halves that are peeled, cored and all that and set them aside. Heat up a non-stick pan (unless you want to get into some 'sticky' business) (cue laughter) and put the butter in. Allow this to melt and bubble slightly before adding the pear halves. Add the pears and then sprinkle the sugar over them and toss in the butter. Leave this to bubble and caramelise, but keep an eye on it, we don't want it to burn, boil and bubble away to a thick, gooey mess.
Once the batter and pears are done, we need to roll out the pastry. To do this we need to flour a surface lightly with the same flour you used in the tart, so not self-raising, but plain. Take the pastry out of the fridge and put onto the floured surface. Roll this out with a floured rolling pin and roll out until thin. This depends on the size of your tart tin, I think mine is 20cm/8inches, so roll it out to fit the tart tin.
Line this with baking paper and weigh down with flour and the left over pastry cuttings, if you have some. Pop this into the preheated oven and bake for around 15 minutes or until set.
Once blind-baked, take it out of the oven and pour the batter in evenly, just before reaching the edge. It is actually a thicker batter due to the almonds, so get a spatula or spoon and portion it out onto the pastry and smooth. Add the pears on top of the tart and put back into the oven for around 30 minutes or until golden-brown and cooked through.
Once the tart is baked, take it out of the oven and wrap in tin foil, I do this as I feel if there is any doubt of it being baked through, I wrap it in tin foil, then I won't bake it excessively and dry it out. But it ensures that it is cooked. The residual heat off the tart will be trapped within the foil and carry on cooking the tart.
Once cooled serve along with cream/ ice cream/ chocolate sauce or whatever you fancy.
To make the chocolate sauce the recipe says;
- 100g Butter
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Dark Chocolate
- 1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 125ml Water
Put it all over a water bath (bowl over a pot of simmering water) and melt it all together until luscious looking.
But I use ganache, which is according to my own estimates;
- 200g Dark Chocolate
- 200g Milk Chocolate
- 400g Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Knob of butter
- Pinch of Salt- seriously try it!? I was skeptical too with salt, but a little goes a long way in flavour.
You always want equal measures of chocolate to cream. Heat the cream until just before boiling point. Put the broken up chocolate bits in and stir until melted. Add the vanilla and salt and mix. Then add the butter- this not only gives it flavour, but it gives it a shine as well.
Anyway, that is the new and improved and my old friend the tart recipe done. This is a good one! Hope you enjoy this one? x
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