Today is Janet's birthday. Birthday's are something to be celebrated, specifically with baked goods. Baked goods were meant to be for birthdays, well they are really for any occasion, but birthday's are super duper special and so this is definitely an occasion in need of a baked good.
Plus it also gave me a good excuse to bake this Pear and Almond tart- which I haven't made in a while. For one, it takes a while to make, and also I've been busy. But the smell and taste is all worth it- even if it will be going into someone else's tummy. :) / ):
The first thing you need to do is prep everything- this recipe takes a while, so it really helps to get everything sorted now, instead of as you go.
This includes, weighing out all the ingredient prior to needing them, lining your tart tin and preheating the oven.
The ingredients you'll need are;
For the pastry- all buttery and short. The thing I love about making shortcrust pastry is that it is like play-doh. Not only is it therapeutic, but it tends to make this satisfying doughy noise when kneading it. I can't explain it any other way, it is a completely unique noise that I can't help but love.
By the way, kneading is when you stretch the dough out and then fold it back on itself and repeat the process. This helps to bring the mixture/dough together and smooth it out as well. But I've talked about that in previous blogs, so I won't be repetitive.
- 150g Chilled Butter
- 300g Plain Flour, plus extra for kneading
- 100g Sugar- my own addition
- 2 sprinkles of Salt
To make the pastry, put the flour, salt and sugar into a food processor (or bowl if you don't have a food processor and use a fork or finger tips) and blitz together until combined. Then add the butter into this in chunks. Blitz or rub together with your finger tips until the mixture comes together into a light, sandy/ yellow coloured dough.
Now you want to tip it out onto a floured surface and knead it together into a smooth dough ball with your hands.
To do this, cup your hands and rotate the dough (clockwise, or anti-clockwise- whatever feels right) whilst gently applying pressure.
So you will be containing the dough between your hands and slowly pushing it together. Or knead it like you would with bread.
After around 5 minutes or less, the dough will be smooth looking and will have come together. Now wrap it in cling film, flatten it a little (doing this will make it easier to roll out after it has been chilled. Reduces the amount of cracks forming.) and either pop it into the fridge or freezer. I put mine into the freezer, as today was quite humid and with the oven on, it was quite warm in the kitchen.
To make the filling, you can put all the ingredients into one bowl- making this a good recipe on the washing up perspective.
For the filling;
- 100g unsalted butter (but again, I find that it doesn't really make a difference what kind of butter you choose to use)
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 4 Eggs
- 50g Plain Flour
- 100g Ground Almonds
Simply put these into a bowl and mix together until the mixture is smooth and silky. Leave this aside, now it is time to do the pears!
Peel one large pear, or two small ones and chop the head and tail off. Cut four slices off the pear, each corner, and then cut that slice in half. You should have eight pieces of pear now.
These need to be caramelised. Heat a non-stick pan with butter and sugar, about 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of sugar as well, but I just sprinkle it all in. Let this melt and bubble, before adding the pear slices. Saute the pears until they are soft and cooked through.
Now all the elements are complete. Let's really get down to business.
Take the pastry out of the freezer/fridge and roll out onto the floured surface. Roll out until around 1cm thick- you want the pastry to be quite thin. Line the tart tin with the pastry, prick the base with a fork, line with baking paper and the use the remaining pastry to weigh this down. Pop into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
The reason you need to weigh the pastry down in the tart tin is because it has a tendency to bubble up and expand. But the other good reason for weighing the pastry down, especially with the left over pastry scraps is that it ensures that the sides of the pastry don't fall down or shrink whilst baking and also I can use the left over pastry- meaning no wastage.
After the tart is finished blind baking- this is where you bake the pastry until semi-cooked before adding the filling. If you didn't blind bake the pastry and put the filling in immediately this would cause a 'soggy bottom' (I feel like i'm channeling Mary Berry) and could stop it from becoming crispy and cooked through. Now you want to add the filling, pour the filling into base and layer the pears on top of the tart. Put the tart back into the oven and bake for a further 25 minutes at 170C in a fan assisted oven. Or until cooked through and smelling gorgeous.
You'll know it's done when you can smell it and it is golden-brown and a skewer comes out clean. Take it out of the oven, pop out of the tart tin, but keep the base on and put onto a cooling tray and leave to cool completely.
There we are- the tart is complete. You could serve this with cream and dark chocolate, or just cream, even ice cream. Whatever floats your boat really. I dusted it with icing sugar and will let Janet do with it whatever she wants. Janet if you want to eat it- cool. If you want to feed it to a stray cat- that's cool too. If you want to through it against a wall because you've always wondered how that would feel (like in Tom and Jerry) I'm happy to help you fill that life wonder. Happy birthday Janet and have a lovely evening all!
Hope you enjoyed this one. Happy birthday Jans and I hope you like this? xx
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| This is a view of what the crust should look like |
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| Finished Pear and Almond Tart |
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