by Jenny, Age 15

I’ve been dreaming about making this tart ever since pears started showing up in the markets last month. My tart recipe is a combination of various parts from “family” recipes that have been handed down in old tin boxes over the years from my great grandmas. Substituting the candied pecans for the almond paste is my idea. I guess we have a new recipe now. I made the tart crust the way my mom does, with a traditional pie crust, not the sweet buttery crust you find in the French pastry tarts.

Before you begin make sure all your ingredients are gathered and in one place. I made up the candied pecan paste because I didn’t have almonds for the traditional almond paste. I like to try new things and the candied pecans worked great. I don’t think I’ll ever go back.

Pre-bake your pie crust to avoid wet soggy bottom tart. To prevent your pie dough from losing its shape, cover with foil before you bake it. Let the pie crust cool completely before adding the pecan paste.

I chopped the candied pecans in the Vitamix on then I added the rest of the ingredients all at once and combined them using a very slow speed. This worked better than a food processor and it’s really easy to clean.

It’s a good idea to taste the candied pecan paste so you will know if you need to adjust the seasonings or not. Once you have it just right, cover and set in the refrigerator until firm. About 30 minutes.

While the pie crusts cools and the pecan pastes sets in the refrigerator I went to work peeling, coring and slicing the pears.

Once the pears are peeled rub them with lemon to prevent discoloration. Slice evenly. If you have a slicer like the one in my hand it will make the job of slicing the pears evenly much easier.

Spread the pecan paste evenly on the cooled tart crust. Arrange the pears anyway you like to create a beautiful design. Now the tart is ready to bake.

Pear Tart

For the pears:
3 or 4 medium very ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced thin
1 lemon

For the candied pecan paste:
1 cup ground candied pecans (recipe below)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 large egg

Pastry
1 pre-baked 9-inch pie crust, at room temperature. (Basic recipe below)
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions
To make the Candied Pecan Paste: Put the pecans, butter, sugar, flour, cornstarch and egg in a food processor (or Vitamix) and process until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Scrape mixture into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread the pecan paste on the bottom of the pre-baked pie crust. Using a spatula or scraper, slide it under half of a pre-sliced pear and slide it on top of the paste. Continue with the rest of the pear halves or until the tart is full of pears. Press down on the top of the pears to fan them. Put the tart on a lined baking sheet, place the sheet into the oven and bake the tart 50 minutes, or until the pecan paste puffs up around the pears. Remove the tart and cool on a wire rack

Optional: Dust the tart with confectioners’ sugar just before serving

Pie Crust Dough
The secret to a flaky pie crust is very cold butter. Cut the butter into cubes and freeze, at least 15 minutes.
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I use organic whenever possible)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 7 tablespoons very cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 7 tablespoons very cold shortening, cut into pieces
½ cup ice water

1. Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and shortening. Using a pastry cutter or two knives cut butter and shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles pea-size pieces. 2. Using a fork, quickly stir in 1/2 cup ice water. Turn dough onto a clean surface. Knead just until dough starts to hold together about 10 times. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a 6-in. disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Candied Pecans
2 egg whites 2 tbsp water ½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar 1 tsp salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg 1 tsp cinnamon 4 cups pecans

Preheat oven to 250. In a large bowl beat the egg whites and water. Add pecans and stir to coat. Whisk together the sugar, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour over the pecans, stirring to coat. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Spread pecans on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before storing in air tight container.

Text, Photographs and Recipe: © 2011 Chow Bella Kids

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4. Rhubarb Like a Pro

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 15th, 2011 at 9:08 am and is filed under Live Blogging, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.