"Can I get that recipe?"

A lot of my cooking lately has been baking-centered, and fruit-specific baking at that. This isn’t something I have always done much of. It was sort of an accident, actually. Over the past four years or so, I developed some bizarre food reactions. A little bit of research combined with a visit to a really great allergist in Princeton, NJ, and it turns out...I’m allergy to healthy things. Okay, not ALL healthy things - but a lot of raw fruits and vegetables. Turns out this isn’t as weird as it seems - not even that uncommon, just under-diagnosed.

I digress. Point is, can’t eat raw fruit. Fast forward to the holidays last year, when I was the recipient of a couple of Harry & David gift boxes...both of which included many fresh, juicy, delicious, pears. Which I can’t eat. What to do? Poached pears sounded so thoroughly unappealing. A little Google hunting produced a fairly simple sounding pear tart recipe (posted in full below), so I figured I’d give it a try.

The first time I made it, it came out looking like total liquid, and I fretted and I knashed and I wrung my hands and put it in the oven again and again. Since the juice was being created by the ongoing liquidation of the pears plus the brown sugar, this obviously didn’t help, but in the end it may actually have made it even more delicious (just as long as you don’t burn the crust).



Bottom line: simple, delicious, and the kind of thing that, if you bring it into the office, your colleagues will ask for again and again and again. Trust me.

Give this one a try...more baked fruit recipes to follow!

Rustic Pear Tart Eating Healthy in 2009. Copyright 2007, Ellie Krieger, All Rights Reserved.
Prep Time: 40 min // Inactive Prep Time: 30 min // Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves 6

Ingredients

Crust: [note from your blogger: I completely skip this crust business...Trader Joe's makes a terrific frozen crust that looks and tastes homemade. Defrost, roll out, and you're done. But if you're so inclined, this one came with the recipe...]

1/2 cup whole-grain pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons lowfat buttermilk
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

3 medium pears
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons light brown sugar [Note from your blogger: I rarely have light brown sugar on hand, so do the old half-and-half of dark brown and white sugar.]
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Glaze [Note from your blogger: I tend to forget to make this...the tart is still delicious either way, although probably not as pretty]:

1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon boiling water

Directions

To prepare the crust, in a medium bowl whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour, all- purpose flour, granulated sugar and salt. Add the butter and using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until you get a pebbly, course texture. In a small bowl combine the buttermilk and ice water. Using a fork, gradually mix the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture. Pat the dough into a 4-inch round and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and prepare the filling. Peelthe pears, core them and cut into 1/4-inch slices. In a large bowl toss the pear slices with the lemon juice. Sprinkle in the cornstarch, brown sugar and cinnamonand toss until the pears are evenly coated. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a large circle about nine inches in diameter. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and draping the dough over the rolling pin, transfer to the prepared baking sheet. If the dough breaks at all patch it up with your fingers. [Note from your blogger: I haven’t attempted this - haven’t been confident the crust wouldn’t collapse on me with all the liquid the appears - so have been just putting in a pie dish. Arrange and fold as she suggests and it works out fine.]

Arrange the pears in a mound in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch boarder. Fold the border over the filling. It will only cover the pears partially and does not need to be even.

Bake the tart for 15 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, keeping the tart in the oven all the while, and bake for another 40 minutes, until the pears are tender and the crust is golden brown. [Note from your blogger: at this point, mine often looks like it’s too liquid-y, as mentioned above. Don’t worry about it. Let it cool and the liquid will set. Just be careful to limit the amount of heat it if you serve it warm...which you should.]

In a small bowl stir together the honey and boiling water to make a glaze. When the tart is done remove it from the oven and brush the honey glaze all over the top of the fruit and crust. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly. Cut into 6 wedges and serve warm or a room temperature.