Poached Pear Tart with Lemony Cream

The second I saw this Poached Pear Tart I knew that I had found the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert for the husband. I’ve already confided in you his “strange” preference for all fruit filled desserts over all decadent chocolatey offerings. I know….bizarro! But at least I’ve accepted and internalized this knowledge and can apply it when I’m trying to come up with a sweet indulgence made just for him.

A Pear Tart would not be my Valentine’s choice, but I’m not baking for me. My husband knows what to get me (cupcakes!), so I will leave it to him. But back to this tart,  I could tell from his perspective this dessert has it going on! I mean, he absolutely LOVES tarts, anyone who knows him will tell you that about him without hesitation… (snicker, snicker) and this one has wine poached pears baked in lovely lemony cream! Seems like it was a recipe crafted just with him in mind. A perfect Valentine’s treat!

I must admit though, I really don’t like working with pears at all! It’s not that I don’t like them, I really do. It’s just that I can never tell if they are ripe or not. So I spend an eternity in the store, gently touching every pear on display, like some sort of pear whisperer, hoping that the mysterious fruit will take pity on me and push the ripe ones of themselves into my basket. Yet that has never happened, so I finally give up and just pick a few to cart home with me. Of course they are not the perfect ripe ones, so I try to accelerate the process by placing them in paper bags with other ripening fruit. Yeah. They remain rock hard until I turn my back for like 5 minutes and I come back to find them ripened into a pile of mush! Don’t know if that happens to you or not, but it sure happens to me. Though this time, I really wanted this dessert to work out for Valentine’s Day, so I held vigil by these little devils until they were ready! Yup. It’s true I love my husband that much. I braved the pears and actually won on this time!

There are quite a few steps involved in making this tart, but the good news is that you can break them up over several days if necessary. I poached the pears and made the pastry on one day and then completed the recipe on the following day. Making this tart was definitely worth the time investment because it not only looks beautiful but tastes amazing. Refreshingly light.

I served each slice with a scoop of simple vanilla ice cream drizzled with a scrumptious syrup reduction of the pear poaching liquid. And don’t forget the champagne of course! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Poached Pear Tart with Lemony Cream

recipe from: Elra

yield: one 11″ tart

Ingredients:

For the pastry dough:

• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1  1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioner sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

For the poached pears:

• 3 ripe but still firm Bosch pears
• 750 ml (1 bottle) good quality white wine of your preference
• 1/2 cup sugar
• vanilla bean, scraped

For the lemony cream:

• 1/4 cup (30 g) sugar
• 4 tablespoons (50 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon
• lemon juice from 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup (50 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt, optional

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Directions:

Peel, and cut the pear in half, using melon baller core and discard the seeds. Place them in a large pot,  pour in white wine, add sugar and vanilla bean. Place the pot over medium low heat, simmer until pears are slightly tender, about 30 to 40 minutes. Turn off the heat, cool completely in the liquid.

In the mean time, begin to make the pastry. Put all ingredients, except lightly beaten egg onto food processor. Pulse use 1 to 2 second pulse until most of the butter is the size of a peas. Add lightly beaten egg and pulse again until the dough just starting to form a small clump.

Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead lightly a couple of times. Gather the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least  30 minutes.

Generously grease an 11-inch removable bottom tart pan with butter.

Roll out the pastry to fit the size of tart pan, transfer into the pan, and trim off the excess. Prick all over with fork, cover with plastic wrap, and place it back in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes, or up to a day in advance.

On baking day, preheat oven to 375° F. Remove the pastry from refrigerator. Place a piece of parchment paper, or aluminum foil directly on top. Add dried beans, or pie chain, directly on top of paper of foil, then bake in the middle rack for 15 minutes. Remove pastry from oven, remove the paper, or foil including the beans. Quickly and lightly brush the pastry with egg white, this process will prevent the pastry from becoming soggy. Return pastry to the oven, continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Turn the oven up to 400° F. Set the racks in the lower third and upper third of the oven.

Remove pears from their poaching liquid, blot dry with paper towel, and set them aside. Place reserved poaching liquid in small heavy bottomed saucepan and set over medium to medium high heat to reduce. This takes about 20 minutes or so and you will end up with 1/4 to 1/3 cup of syrup.

Using a hand whisk, large wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add egg, and vanilla extract, beat  to blend. Mix in lemon zest and lemon juice. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, add it to the cream mixture, and mix just enough to incorporate the ingredients. Using small spatula, spread the batter into the bottom and sides of the cooled tart shell. Arrange poached pears over the filling. Bake the tart on the lowest rack for 25 to 30 minutes. Take the tart out from the oven, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, taking care not to get sugar on the pastry, which could cause it to burn. Return the tart to the oven, and place it on the top rack. Continue to bake for another 15 minutes, or until pears starts to caramelized, and the crust is dark browned. Remove the tart from the oven, and transfer it onto cooling rack to cool completely. Using a kitchen torch, lightly char the pears, to get that slightly burnt and rustic look on your tart. Right before serving, dust the tart with confectioner’s sugar. Serve with fresh whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or simply drizzled with the reduced pear poaching syrup.

Enjoy!