Fancy Pear Tart (France)
This beautiful little tart is made with puff pastry, a special kind of dough that puffs up when you bake it. Why? Because the technique for making puff pastry creates delicates layers of butter throughout the dough. When the butter melts, the empty pockets puff with air. Once the tart is out of the oven, you brush the top with melted apricot jam to make it look shiny.
Ingredients
1 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick very cold butter, cut into pea-sized pieces
1/3 cup sour cream
3-4 tablespoons ice water
1 ripe pear
2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling over tart
1/3 cup apricot jam for making a glaze
Equipment you’ll need
Measuring cups and spoons
Knife
Mixing bowl and spoon
Rolling pin
Baking tray
Small pan
Pastry brush
1. In your mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Add the cut up pieces of butter. Using your finger tips, gently toss the butter so it becomes coated with flour. Now use your finger tips to pinch the butter into smaller pieces. Add the sour cream and stir. Add the ice water and stir some more. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands. If it doesn’t hold together, add a few more drops ice water.
2. Sprinkle your work surface with flour and place the dough on top of it. Press the dough flat with your palms and sprinkle with flour. Use your rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Fold it in thirds as if it were a letter. Roll it flat again and fold it up again. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 2 hours, or until it gets stiff. If you’re in a hurry, put dough in the freezer for 20 minutes or so.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
4. Cut the pears in half the long way. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and cut across pear to make very thin slices.
5. Cut the chilled dough in half. Sprinkle one half with flour. Use your rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle _ inch thick. Trim the edges with a knife so they’re straight and even. Cut squares from the corners of rectangle and arrange pear slices on top of it. Dip your finger in water and brush along the edges of dough to help it stick when you fold it over. Now fold over the edges. Sprinkle the tart (the crust too) with a teaspoon sugar and place on baking tray. Now make the second tart.
6. Bake for 20 minutes until crust is golden brown.
7. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan combine the apricot jam with two tablespoons water and cook over low heat until it turns syrupy. When the tart comes out of the oven, brush the top with melted jam.
How to form the tart
