Pear Almond Torte
For the Pears:
- 4 cups water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 medium-size pears (such as Bosc), peeled
For the Torte:
- 1/3 cup, plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup Almond Paste
- 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
For Topping:
- 2 tablespoons apricot preserves
- 1 teaspoon water
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Generously grease a 10-inch cake or tart pan with butter and sprinkle on 1 Tablespoon of the sugar. Set aside.
Over medium-high heat, bring water, sugar, and lemon juice to boil in large saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add pears. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until the pears are very tender, stirring occasionally. Cool pears in syrup. (This can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Cover and refrigerate.)
Mix the almond paste and 1/3 cup of the sugar. Add the butter and mix until completely incorporated.
Beat in the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until just combined.
Pour the batter into the pan, spreading evenly with a spatula.
Stem pears and cut each in half lengthwise; scoop out cores. Cut each half into thin slices. Arrange the pears, in a circular pattern covering the entire surface of the batter, slightly overlapping. Place smaller slices in the center.
Bake until the batter puffs up, the edges are golden brown and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 - 35 minutes.
In a small saucepan combine the apricot preserves and water and heat until it becomes translucent and loose. Brush the apricot glaze over the entire top of the pear tart.
Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Adapted from Mixed Salad Annie recipe.
Tarte Tatin
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup of flour (250g)
- 1/2 cup of butter for the crust (125g)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 egg yolk
- some water
- 2/3 cup of butter for the caramel (150g)
- 3/4 cup of granulated sugar (170g)
- 8 to 10 apples (Gala apples are the best)
Instructions
- Prepare the pie crust by mixing flour, butter, salt, yolk, and water. Mix with your hands until you get a nice ball. I don't recommend using a food processor. The pie crust taste better when made by hand. The processed dough is more chewy.
- In a deep round cake pan, place the butter and sugar.
- Place the pan on the stove.
- With a wooden spatula, mix butter and sugar. Do not leave the stove unattended.
- Make a brown caramel. Make sure that it does not get black as it would give a bitter taste to the pie.
- Peel, core and cut apples into quarters.
- Arrange the apple quarters on the cooled caramel.
- If there are some remaining apples, cut into smaller pieces and arrange on top.
- Cover the apples with the dough (1/8 inch or 4 mm thick), with a diameter slightly greater than the pan.
- Fold the dough edges inside the pan.
- Bake in hot oven (375F or 190C) until the crust is golden brown. The crust is almost done when you can see the caramel rising around it
- After cooking, cover the pan with a larger dish and unmould the tarte tatin while it is still hot.
Bon appétit!
The curse is over
The curse is over. I finally managed to cook a Tarte Tatin without alerting the fire department. It tastes very good too!
Crèmes Brûlées
Tonight, Melissa and I participated for the first time in the Scarboro dinner club. Scarboro is the name of our Calgarian neighborhood. Couples get together once a month and while hosts prepare an entrée (a great BBQ salmon tonight) guests bring salad, appetizer, and dessert.
Couples rotates every month and you never dine with the same persons twice for the duration of the program. I was impressed by all well travelled all the individuals at the table were. We talked about Egypt, Germany, Tanzania, Russia, Poland, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, France, Panama, and many others country that I don't recall.
I was tasked with the dessert and not wanting to repeat my springform pan experience, I decided to got with another burnt dessert. Here is the recipe for your enjoyment.
For four servings:
- 1½ cup of heavy whipping cream
- 1 tea spoon of pure vanilla extract
- ½ tea spoon of orange extract
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ cup of granulated sugar
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
- Bring the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and orange extract to a boil. Let it rest
- Beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar
- Pour the whipping cream into the egg yolks and mix well
- Pour the custard in four individual dishes
- Put the individual dishes in a pan and pour water between the dishes so they barely float in the pan
- Cook for 30 to 40 minutes at 350F until custard is set
- Let rest at room temperature for four hours
- Sprinkle with brown sugar and broil (using the oven) for a couple of minutes. Make sure you keep you eyes while it broils or you going to burn more than the cream! In my case, I keep the fire extinguisher at hand but this may not be necessary in your case.
Serve cold.
Springform pans are evil
Last Saturday, Melissa and I had guests and I wanted to impression them with my highly developed culinary skills that come from a long French lineage and a so exquisite French tradition.
Anyway, in addition of the Bœuf Bourguignon, and the Gratin Dauphinois, I decided to cook two Tartes Tatin.
Having sold most of our pans in a garage sale last month, I went to buy some new ones on Saturday afternoon but since I was not sure which one to use and given my tardiness and available choices, I picked two very nice springform pans.
I started to melt sugar and butter on the stove and noticed a small leak at the bottom of the pan. This was not a big deal, the stove is actually easy to clean.
I peeled and sliced twenty apples and stacked them in the pans. I then covered the pans with fresh made crust and shove them in the oven at 400F.
There was more caramel leaking at the bottom and some smoke. This was not a big deal. the oven is actually easy to clean.
The smoke detector went off in the foyer. This was not a big deal, the fire alarm is connected to the burglar alarm and it was not a big deal to silence it on the wall panel.
Six o'clock arrives and one of my guest calls to tell me he is in the neighborhood looking for the house.
I hear sirens in the distance. This was not a big deal, must be some firefighters late for tea.
It turned out that the fire alarm is in fact monitored and the alarm company called the fire department. My guests arrived on one end of the street while the three fire trucks (a full box in their jargon) arrived at the other end of the street. Everybody stopped at our house and for some reasons, our guests were hesitant to come in.
The two firefighters were not so hesitant and they kindly checked that everything was ok before going on their merry way.
Our kind landlord was surprised to receive a phone call from the Alarm Agency.
No tarte tatin that evening but we had a nice chocolate cake brought by one of the guest and I need to buy the proper pans. Springform pans are evil...