Pear & Chocolate Tart

The photo doesn't do justice to this delicious dessert. As some other blogger wrote recently, "beige" food doesn't photograph well. Beige (pear) ice cream. Beige pears. Beige tart pastry. The only contrast is the chocolate horizontal stripe you can barely see at the bottom. That's not just a shadow, but chocolate. Good chocolate. We were entertaining guests for dinner, and I didn't take the dessert dish over to my good light (see photo below) I've put in the butler's pantry. It's just adjacent to the dining room. I didn't want to disturb our guests sitting but a few feet away. This blogging business is a bit distracting sometimes. Distracting to our guests. Distracting even to me sometimes. So I took a photo with ambient light.

This doesn't look like much, but it's my new Lowel EGO blogging light. It lives in my butler's pantry (for now anyway). It's kind of innocuous looking, although larger than I'd thought. I'd like to hide it, but for now it lives out there in the open. It creates a very bright but diffused light to get better photos of the food. All for you, dear readers. In case you're interested, I learned about it over at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen.

I know the drill! A picture is worth a thousand words, and I know photos make a food blog interesting. Photos make people read on. So, through hectic food prep, making merry, washing dishes and everything else that goes along with producing a dinner party, I gotta have PICTURES! Fortunately, our family & friends who had dinner with us were patient with me. They may be thinking I'm totally NUTS doing what I'm doing - maybe even rude. Hope not, but it's possible! They all know I have a food blog, but it's one thing to talk about it, another to pause and prop pictures in the midst of a party.

So, back to this dessert. Which is delicious, if I didn't mention that before. I know I did - I'm just repeating it for emphasis. It's a subtle dessert - cooked pears aren't exactly bold, and there are just 8 ounces of chocolate in this, so you don't get a huge punch of it. But the combination of the two, with the tender pastry and the cool frosty ice cream on the side, make for one great dessert. This dessert is NOT difficult to make, despite the list of ingredients, and the long list of instructions. It's just that the steps are a bit detailed. You also need to have some Poire William, or pear brandy. Here's a photo of my bottle of Poire William, purchased some years ago. It was dear, that I remember, but you only use a little bit at a time. Do note the pear in the bottom of the bottle. How do they do that, you ask? They place the bottle over the pear when it's teeny tiny, somehow strap it to the tree branch, put an opaque cover over the top (otherwise the pear would burn in the sunshine), then let the pear mature.

This liqueur is not sweet - it's not really for sipping. Although perhaps the French do. I only use it for cooking, and the rare item, to be sure.

So, where'd the recipe come from? Another cooking class. From Kate Hill, an American woman, who moved to France probably 20 years ago. She bought an old barge, the Julia Hoyt, from Holland and sailed it down to Southern France where she parks it on the side of a canal. She bought a small cottage there, and even takes paying guests on the barge now and then. She's written a cookbook, called A Culinary Journey in Gascony, about her experiences, and with lots of peasant style recipes. She taught a cooking class about 5 years or so ago, right after her cookbook was published. This was the dessert she prepared. She has a blog, in case you're interested in reading. She posts recipes occasionally, but mostly the blog is about her life. Her day to day, with her adorable dog Bacon.

Cook's Notes: There are a few things to mention here. First, and most important, be certain your pears are the right stage of ripeness. I seem to have the toughest time with pears. The day they finally ripen, is not the day I'm ready to cook them. One day more and they've become grainy and inedible. So, this particular time I bought the pears 4 days before the event, and they were just the perfect shade of ripe. Thank goodness. Also, don't roll the dough too thin, as it will break when you try to pull up the sides. If you do that, the cream fraiche topping will ooze out all over everywhere. Take it from someone who knows from first hand experience about that! So read the directions carefully.

Pear and Chocolate Tart
Recipe By: Kate Hill, author
Serving Size : 8
PASTRY:
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 whole egg
1 tablespoon ice water
CHOCOLATE:
8 ounces dark chocolate -- Valrhona or Sharffen Berger
PEARS:
4 large fresh pears -- peeled and halved, not Bartlett
2 tablespoons Poire William -- or pear brandy
CREAM LAYER:
1 cup creme fraiche
1 whole egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
1. Pastry: mix flour and sugar together and work in the butter in your fingers, until the butter is flaked and broken into the flour. Don't overhandle the dough. If it's a warm day, dip your hands in some icy water periodically, as the heat from your hands can begin to melt the butter.
2. Make a well in the center of the flour, then add egg and water. Mix with fork until most of the flour is absorbed. Knead lightly with your hand to form a smooth ball. This dough should be very "wet" and soft. Don't be tempted to add more flour because it's too sticky. It needs to be just barely manageable. Cover with a cloth and rest while you prepare the filling. Preheat oven to 425°.
3. Pear Filling: Slice the pears into a bowl to which you add the 2 T. of Poire William. Gently roll the pears in the liquid to keep them from discoloring.
4. Chocolate: Melt the chocolate over very low heat, or a double boiler with 3 T. of pear syrup (from the bowl of pears) or water.
5. Roll out the pastry to a rough rectangle. Try to make this fit onto a large baking sheet, approximately 11 x 14 inches, fitted with a Silpat or parchment paper. It is not necessary to have even edges and do not trim the edges. Try not to have any thin spots - if you do, cut from a fuller area and patch. Dough is very soft and will allow you to do this easily.
6. Spread the chocolate mixture onto the pastry, leaving about 1 1/2 to 2 inches of pastry all around the edge (this is the edge that gets folded inward). Spread as evenly as possible.
7. In a small bowl stir the creme fraiche, egg, vanilla and Poire William juice that is poured off from the pears. You may need to add another 2-3 tsp. of Poire William to make the mixture thickly pourable.
8. Place the pear slices on top of the chocolate in a decorative manner. Spoon a little bit of the cream mixture around the outer edges of the pears, but not so much that it dribbles out onto the outer dough. Carefully fold the pastry edge up over the chocolate pear mixture. Don't pull the dough - you do not want the dough to break anywhere or the filling will ooze out in the baking. The edges do not meet - in fact you need to leave space because the creamy mixture goes in the center, and on top of the pears.
9. Gently pour or spoon the creme fraiche mixture into the center area - not on the pastry. If necessary, carefully lift up the edges of the pastry a little bit, to spoon into crevices. Try to cover most or all of the chocolate. Sprinkle with (vanilla) sugar and bake in the top half of your oven for 20-25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown.
Per Serving: 450 Calories; 30g Fat (57.5% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 45g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 111mg Cholesterol; 36mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 6 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
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