Spy Girl’s Boozy Kitchen: French Pear Tart

italianstinger — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:01:14 +0000

This is the first of our new monthly columns (so exciting!). A self-proclaimed foodie, Spy Girl will be sharing her favorite boozy recipes for your enjoyment. –Italian Stinger

In the midst of the craziness planning the 2nd annual LUPEC Denver Prom Redux, we decided to wear Prom Queen worthy sashes at the event over our party dresses. Being a crafty group of ladies, it was time to break out the satin ribbon, glitter glue, and maybe a cocktail shaker, too. I knew we’d need some sustenance for our sash making party at The Vamp’s house and I happened to have an absurd number of pears on my counter, so I tried a new recipe. There isn’t a huge amount of alcohol in this tart, but the rum (or brandy) adds a lovely, subtle depth to the dessert. The ladies loved it and our glittery sashes were done it no time, with a piece of tart to spare.

This recipe is fairly straightforward, but takes a little while to put together.

FRENCH PEAR TART
Adapted from BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS
Makes 6 servings

For the pears:
6 canned pear halves OR 3 medium pears, firm but ripe
1 lemon
4 cups water, optional

1 1/4 cups sugar, optional
For the almond cream:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup ground blanched almonds
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg
2 teaspoons dark rum or brandy
1 partially-baked 9-inch tart shell, made with Sweet Tart Dough (see below), at room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting, or apple jelly for glazing

Getting ready: If you are using canned pears, you have nothing to do now. If you are using fresh pears peel them and leave them whole. Bring the 4 cups water, the 1 1/4 cups sugar and the juice of the lemon to a boil in a saucepan just large enough to hold the pears. Add the pears to the boiling syrup, lower the heat so the syrup simmers and gently poach the pears until they are tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes. Cool the pears to room temperature in the syrup.

To make the almond cream: Put the butter and sugar in the workbowl of a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and satiny. Add the ground almonds and continue to process until well blended. Add the flour and cornstarch, process, and then add the egg. Process for about 15 seconds more, or until the almond cream is homogeneous. Add the rum and process just to blend. If you prefer, you can make the cream in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a bowl with a rubber spatula. In either case, the ingredients are added in the same order. Scrape the almond cream into a container and either use it immediately or refrigerate it until firm, about 2 hours.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a lined baking sheet at the ready. If you are using poached, cut them in half from blossom to stem and core them. Whatever pears you have, make sure to pat them dry – really dry – so that their liquid won’t keep the almond cream from baking. Fill the baked crust with the almond cream, spreading it even with an offset metal icing spatula. Thinly slice each pear half crosswise, lift each half on a spatula, press down on the pear to fan it slightly and place it, wide-end toward the edge of the crust, over the almond cream. The halves will form spokes.

Put the crust on the lined baking sheet, slide the sheet into the oven and bake the tart 50 to 60 minutes, or until the almond cream puffs up around the pears and browns. Transfer the tart to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature before unmolding.

Right before serving, dust the tart with confectioners’ sugar. If you prefer, prepare a glaze by bringing about 1/4 cup apple jelly and1/2 teaspoon water to the boil. Brush the glaze over the surface of the tart.

Serving: This tart goes very well with aromatic tea.
Storing: If it’s convenient for you, you can make the almond cream up to 2 days ahead and keep it closely covered in the refrigerator, or you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months; defrost before using. You can also poach the pears up to 1 day ahead. However, once you’ve baked the tart, you should be prepared to enjoy it that same day.
Playing around: The almond cream is a great companion for a variety of fruits. It’s as good with summer fruits, like apricots or peaches, as it is with autumn’s apples.

SWEET TART DOUGH

Adapted from BAKING FROM MY HOME TO YOURS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

To make the dough: Put the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely – you’ll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that’s just fine. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses – about 10 seconds each – until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Turn the dough out onto a work surface.
Very lightly and sparingly – make that very, very lightly and sparingly – knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

If you want to press the dough into a tart pan, now is the time to do it.
Butter the tart pan and press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don’t be stingy – you want a crust with a little heft because you want to be able to both taste and feel it. Also, don’t be too heavy-handed – you want to press the crust in so that the pieces cling to one another and knit together when baked, but you don’t want to press so hard that the crust loses its crumbly shortbreadish texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.

To partially bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil tightly against the crust. Bake the crust 25 minutes, then carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for another 3 to 5 minutes, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack; keep it in its pan.

Cupcakes for a Cause

lupec — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:17:39 +0000

In honor of our upcoming 5th Annual Breakfast for Boobs event on April 26, LUPEC Denver has teamed up with the wonderful folks at Big Fat Cupcake!

LUPEC's Pink Hooter Cupcake created by Big Fat Cupcake

Big Fat Cupcake created the LUPEC Pink Hooter, based on the Pink Lady cocktail. It’s a vanilla cupcake filled with pomegranate cream and topped with pink buttercream frosting and a cherry. It’s only $3.95, available Mon-Fri throughout April. It’s yummy! 10% of proceeds from the shop will go towards helping people with cancer who aren’t able to pay
their rent or mortgages.

Go get your cupcake!

129 Adams St
Denver, CO 80206
(303) 322-2253

LUPEC Denver » Food Recipes

Spy Girl’s Boozy Kitchen: French Pear Tart

Cupcakes for a Cause