With pears coming into season, you may be wondering “what else can you do with pears besides eat them with Brie?” I do recommend eating them with Brie, specifically this one but you can also bake them into a pie or tart if you will. A pear tart is a fun and unique application for pears.
This post is going to give you the best recipe for a pear tart.
The Pears
When making this pear tart you will want to know how to decide which kind of pears to use in your filling.
I recommend using a mix of different pears. Let’s break down a few types of pears and what you will get out of each one.
Bosc Pear
Bosc pears are crisp and woodsy with a sweet honey flavor. The beauty of Bosc pears is that they sweeten up early in the ripening process therefore you can use them relatively quickly.
Red Angel Pear
These pears are super sweet and have a buttery texture. This makes them great for eating fresh or mixing a few in the filling for this pear tart. Their coloring goes from deep dark red to bright red when ripe.
Green Anjou Pear
Anjou pears are refreshing, sweet, and have a crisp citrus flavor. This is an all-purpose pear and is perfect for the base pear of your tart filling.
The Pear Tart Dough
The dough for this tart is a basic recipe so to ensure it tastes great you are going to want the best quality ingredients for it. You need butter, flour, water, sugar, and salt to achieve this tart dough.
Starting with the butter, make sure it is ice cold. Do this by dicing it into 1/4-inch cubes and popping it into the freezer for 15 minutes.
As for what kind of butter, below are the three I recommend. Any of these butters will make your tart dough rich in flavor.
Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter Unsalted
Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter
For the best results use cake flour. If you cannot get cake flour, AP flour is always an option. I opt for cake flour because it results in a flaky and light tart.
While you think the water going into the dough is not that important, using filtered water or reverse osmosis will result in a finished product that is free of impurities. If you have safe drinking water from the tap you can use that, but if you have filtered water or R/O water use that in your tart dough.
In this recipe you are going to want to use maple sugar. Using maple sugar instead of cane sugar will result in a tart with better nutritional value and a lesser environmental impact. Maple sugar is a more sustainable source than cane sugar. Because we are using a small amount of sugar here it is a reasonable substitute for cane sugar.
I recommend this flaky sea salt for the best results.
Now that you are equipped with the best quality ingredients you can dive into making this show-stopping pear tart. This tart will impress and satisfy any pear lover you know. It is the perfect opportunity to try a unique application for pears this season.
This post has supplied you with the necessary information for making a pear tart.
The Best Pear Tart
Ingredients
- The Filling
- 780 grams or 4 each Pears
- 40 grams or 3 Tbs Maple Sugar
- 1 each Vanilla Bean
- 30 grams or 2 Tbs Maple Syrup
- 8 grams or 1 Tbs Butter
- 1 pinch of Flaky Sea Salt
- The Dough
- 240 grams or 2 cups Cake Flour
- 70 grams or 3/4 cup Butter (cubed and ice cold)
- 85 grams or 1/4 cup Water
- 6 grams or 1/2 tsp Maple Sugar
- 1 pinch Flaky Sea Salt
- 1 Eggs (reserve for egg wash)
Instructions
- The Filling
- Peel and roughly chop all but one pear and add to a medium sauce pan. Slice the remaining unpeeled pear into 1/4 inch thick slices and reserve in a bowl for later.
- Add the maple sugar, vanilla bean, maple syrup, butter, and salt to the saucepan and cook for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Drain the liquid from the saucepan over the reserved sliced pears. Let both pear mixtures cool to room temperature.
- The Dough
- In a large bowl add the cake flour and diced chilled butter cubes.
- With your fingers rub the butter and flour together until you have a coarse mealy texture throughout the mixture.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour butter mixture and add the salt, maple sugar, and water.
- With your hand start to incorporate the flour into the water. Continue this until you have a crumbly dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and start to kneed the dough until you have a smooth ball dough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in a cooler for 10 minutes.
- Assembly
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter and flour a 10 inch pie pan.
- Cut you chilled dough into two equal pieces. With a rolling pin roll each piece out to a circle large enough to cover the pie pan about 1/4 inch thick.
- Place on piece on the bottom of the pie pan fitting it flush to the sides of the pan.
- Add the cooked pear mixture over the dough in an even layer.
- Take your reserved sliced pears and layer the slices in an even circle over the cooked pears.
- Add the top pieces of rolled out dough to cover the entirety of the pan.
- With a small knife trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan.
- Whisk one egg vigorously and using a pastry brush, light brush a layer of egg wash over the top of the tart.
- Bake the tart at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Let chill for 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Serve immediately or reserve in the fridge.
