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Hi Daniel. The recipe I use is very closely based on this one,
Here are my notes, which are almost exactly the same. I tweaked a few things from Beth's recipe, including the pastry by adding a bit more sugar as it was a bit too savoury with less.
You can follow Beth's or my instructions or a bit of both, either way, it'll come out nice.
For pastry:
150g plain flour
About 30g caster sugar
120g cold unsalted butter, diced.
Half teaspoon salt
1 egg YOLK only
Iced water, couple of tablespoons, be careful as it's easy to make dough too sticky.
Pulse flour, sugar & salt in processor and add butter gradually until you get a coarse dough texture. Scrape down sides in between pulses. Be careful of the blade.
Mix the egg with a little water and add to machine while running to form a dough. Add more flour if too sticky. Form into ball, flatten and wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
Then remove from fridge, bash the dough with rolling pin to warm and loosen it up a little. Roll the pastry to a circular shape slightly bigger than your tin. I use a 23cm/9inch fluted tin with a loose base for easy removal after baking.
Put pastry into your tin and then mould it into the shape of the tin. Prick fork holes all over the base.
At this point, you can choose to trim the edges or leave them until baked. You can also choose to blind bake it to avoid a soggy base. I don't bother to blind bake and I find the base is usually fine.
Cover it with cling film and chill in fridge to firm it up or freeze for about 15 minutes while making the filling. I find this step, and the 1 hour refrigerating earlier, stops the sides of the pastry from shrinking too much so I generally trim the sides in advance by rolling my rolling pin across the tin.
.........
For Frangipane filling:
120g room temp butter (or baking spread/margarine)
120g ground almonds
Flaked almonds (optional)
50g sugar
40g flour
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
Quarter teaspoon salt
400g tin of pear halves (drained weight about 230g).
Apricot jam for base layer (optional) under filling and to make a glaze for the pears.(optional).
With stand or hand mixer, cream together butter, ground almonds and sugar, scraping sides down as you go.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between.
Add flour, salt and almond extract. Continue scraping sides down. Frangipane filling is now done.
Remove the pastry from freezer. *Spread a layer of apricot jam (about 3 to 4 tablespoons, * this step is optional) over the base of the pastry, then spoon on the Frangipane filling and smooth out and level with a palate knife or spatula. You can tap the tin on the work top to help level it out.
Place pear halves all around on top of the filling and one in the centre, leaving some space between each pear and about a centimetre away from sides of pastry to allow for the pastry to rise between them. You can make cuts in each pear if you want to enhance the look, like in my photos.
If you have flaked almonds, you can sprinkle or strategically place a few onto the frangipane filling around the pears. This will toast the flakes. Or you could put the flakes on after baking.
Bake at 350° F centre of oven (I use fan assisted) for about 40 minutes or until it looks golden brown. Ideally before it looks like it's browning/burning areas of the pastry too much.
When removed from oven and has cooled for a few minutes but still warm, carefully transfer to a serving plate. If you don't have a loose base tin, I guess it's best to let it completely cool before removing from tin.
Make optional apricot jam glaze. Stir together 1 tablespoon jam + 1 teaspoon water. Microwave it for a few seconds to heat it up and sieve out any hard bits so your just left with a smooth mixture.
With a pastry brush, brush onto the pears. I like to also brush onto most of the pastry as well.
Sprinkle pastry with powdered sugar for the finished look. If you want a more crunchy texture, you can use caster sugar instead, which is best sprinkled onto pastry while pastry is warm, and probably best before you brush the glaze on.
.......
Whipped cream (optional) sweetened or unsweetened. I like to have a dollop or two of whipped cream with the tart. It brings it all to life and really compliments the pears. It makes it awesome!
A small 150ml pot is usually enough. Just whip it with a hand mixer for a few minutes until it really thickens up but careful not to overwhip.
I sometimes sweeten it by adding about 1 tablespoon or so powdered sugar and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. You can adjust this to taste.
Good luck with it, and if you make it, do post some photos!
Here are my notes, which are almost exactly the same. I tweaked a few things from Beth's recipe, including the pastry by adding a bit more sugar as it was a bit too savoury with less.
You can follow Beth's or my instructions or a bit of both, either way, it'll come out nice.
For pastry:
150g plain flour
About 30g caster sugar
120g cold unsalted butter, diced.
Half teaspoon salt
1 egg YOLK only
Iced water, couple of tablespoons, be careful as it's easy to make dough too sticky.
Pulse flour, sugar & salt in processor and add butter gradually until you get a coarse dough texture. Scrape down sides in between pulses. Be careful of the blade.
Mix the egg with a little water and add to machine while running to form a dough. Add more flour if too sticky. Form into ball, flatten and wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
Then remove from fridge, bash the dough with rolling pin to warm and loosen it up a little. Roll the pastry to a circular shape slightly bigger than your tin. I use a 23cm/9inch fluted tin with a loose base for easy removal after baking.
Put pastry into your tin and then mould it into the shape of the tin. Prick fork holes all over the base.
At this point, you can choose to trim the edges or leave them until baked. You can also choose to blind bake it to avoid a soggy base. I don't bother to blind bake and I find the base is usually fine.
Cover it with cling film and chill in fridge to firm it up or freeze for about 15 minutes while making the filling. I find this step, and the 1 hour refrigerating earlier, stops the sides of the pastry from shrinking too much so I generally trim the sides in advance by rolling my rolling pin across the tin.
.........
For Frangipane filling:
120g room temp butter (or baking spread/margarine)
120g ground almonds
Flaked almonds (optional)
50g sugar
40g flour
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
Quarter teaspoon salt
400g tin of pear halves (drained weight about 230g).
Apricot jam for base layer (optional) under filling and to make a glaze for the pears.(optional).
With stand or hand mixer, cream together butter, ground almonds and sugar, scraping sides down as you go.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between.
Add flour, salt and almond extract. Continue scraping sides down. Frangipane filling is now done.
Remove the pastry from freezer. *Spread a layer of apricot jam (about 3 to 4 tablespoons, * this step is optional) over the base of the pastry, then spoon on the Frangipane filling and smooth out and level with a palate knife or spatula. You can tap the tin on the work top to help level it out.
Place pear halves all around on top of the filling and one in the centre, leaving some space between each pear and about a centimetre away from sides of pastry to allow for the pastry to rise between them. You can make cuts in each pear if you want to enhance the look, like in my photos.
If you have flaked almonds, you can sprinkle or strategically place a few onto the frangipane filling around the pears. This will toast the flakes. Or you could put the flakes on after baking.
Bake at 350° F centre of oven (I use fan assisted) for about 40 minutes or until it looks golden brown. Ideally before it looks like it's browning/burning areas of the pastry too much.
When removed from oven and has cooled for a few minutes but still warm, carefully transfer to a serving plate. If you don't have a loose base tin, I guess it's best to let it completely cool before removing from tin.
Make optional apricot jam glaze. Stir together 1 tablespoon jam + 1 teaspoon water. Microwave it for a few seconds to heat it up and sieve out any hard bits so your just left with a smooth mixture.
With a pastry brush, brush onto the pears. I like to also brush onto most of the pastry as well.
Sprinkle pastry with powdered sugar for the finished look. If you want a more crunchy texture, you can use caster sugar instead, which is best sprinkled onto pastry while pastry is warm, and probably best before you brush the glaze on.
.......
Whipped cream (optional) sweetened or unsweetened. I like to have a dollop or two of whipped cream with the tart. It brings it all to life and really compliments the pears. It makes it awesome!
A small 150ml pot is usually enough. Just whip it with a hand mixer for a few minutes until it really thickens up but careful not to overwhip.
I sometimes sweeten it by adding about 1 tablespoon or so powdered sugar and 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. You can adjust this to taste.
Good luck with it, and if you make it, do post some photos!
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