Lucky Cookiecrumb has a pear tree in her back yard. I don't, so the next best thing is to pick some from the huge table of pears at the Sunday market. These pears are not good enough for the shops because they aren't perfect pears. They are just like the pears I would pick if I had a tree in my back yard.
I've printed off a couple of Zoomie's recipe, who happens to be on Cookiecrumbs pear giving list. This is the first Zoomie recipe I've made - the Pear Crostade . The ingredients are much the same, I just constructed mine a little differently.
PEAR CROUSTADE
Crust:
1 cup flour
1-1/2 TBS sugar
1/8 tsp salt
6 TBS chilled butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
1-1/2 TBS ice water (or you may need a little more)
1 egg yolk
Filling:
3 firm but ripe pears, peeled, quartered, cored and cut into 1/2" wedges (if small, use 4 5 pears)
3 TBS sugar
2 TBS flour
2 lemons, well washed zested and juiced.
freshly grated nutmeg
Topping:
2 TBS flour
1 TBS sugar
1 TBS chilled butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
CRUST:
Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Add butter until coarse
crumbs. Transfer to bowl. Mix egg yolk and 1/2 TBS ice water in small
bowl. Using fork, blend to form moist clumps. Gather dough into ball;
flatten into a disc. Wrap and chill until firm, about one hour.
Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
Roll out dough on floured parchment paper to fit a quiche dish.
FILLING: Toss pears, sugar, flour, lemon juice and nutmeg in a large bowl. Overlap pear slices to cover base.
TOPPING: Rub butter into flour and sugar as if making a crumble. Sprinkle over top of pie. Bake tart until crust is golden and filling bubbles, about 45 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream.
