Warm Pear Tart

Inspired by Matt Moran, I decided to make it myself, and at first it was hard but once you get the rhythm it's quite easy. I've made this many times, but my shots were quite dodgy so I'll probably do it once more and take a better shot.

Ingredients:

Pear Tart

4 -Bosc Pears
200g - Marzipan
1 - Sheet puff pastry
50g - Melted unsalted butter
1 - Egg white
1/4tsp - Vanilla essence/extract
1/2tsp - Plain flour
Caster Sugar

Caramel

200g - caster sugar
200ml - cream
100g - butter

Cream

100ml - Thickened cream
1 tsp - Vanilla essence

Crumble mix

100g - Butter
130g - Plain flour
50g - Caster sugar
5g - Ground ginger

Apple Puree'

2 - Large apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
200g - Caster sugar
250ml - Water/White wine
1/2tsp - Vanilla bean

Poached pears

4 - Paradise pears
400ml - Water
1/2 - Vanilla bean split and scraped
50ml - White wine
Cheek of lemon squeezed


Method:

First make the caramel sauce. In a saucepan heat the caster sugar until it turns a dark brown colour, this will take 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the cream and butter and whisk until all the ingredients have come together. Chill over an ice bath until required.

For the apple puree, split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the outsides. Place all of the ingredients into a saucepan then cover with aluminum foil. Bring the ingredients to a simmer and cook for approximately 10 to 15 minutes until soft. When cooked, drain the excess liquid, remove the vanilla bean then puree with a stick blender. Pass the puree through a fine sieve then chill over an ice bath until required. Spoon into a squeeze bottle.

Preheat oven at 200˚C (180˚C). In a bowl beat the marzipan, egg white, vanilla extract and flour until smooth. Roll the puff pastry out onto a floured work surface to a rectangle about 16cm by 22 cm, the pastry should be no thicker than half cm. Place the pastry onto a baking paper-lined tray. Spread a thin layer of the marzipan all over the puff pastry.

Peel the Bosc pears and cut in half through the stem and core. Using a teaspoon or melon scoop remove the core. Slice the pear halves about 2-3mm thick. Lay the pear slices over-lapping each other onto the puff pastry. Cover all the pastry with the pear. Sprinkle over the sugar and melted butter and bake the pastry in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 15 minutes.

Whilst the tart is cooking bring to the boil the water, sugar, Pernod, fennel seeds and juice of half a lemon. Peel and remove the core from the paradise pears, place in the syrup and simmer until tender; this will take approximately 10 minutes.

For the crumble mix, preheat the oven to 200°C. Place all the ingredients into a bowl then rub the butter into the dry ingredients until a bread crumb consistency has been achieved. Place covered in the fridge until required.
Place the crumbs onto a baking tray and bake in the oven until golden brown. Continually check the crumble mixture while it is baking to ensure they cook evenly.

Remove the tart from the oven. Spoon over half of the caramel sauce evenly over the tart. Place a sheet of baking paper on top of the tart and then place a baking tray on top. Flip the tart over so the sliced pear would be on the bottom of the tray. Return to the oven and cook for a further 10-15 minutes. Remove the tart from the oven and flip over again. Remove the tart from the baking sheet to a chopping board. The pears should be golden brown and caramelized.

Squeeze a line of the apple puree along the plate in a line/zigzag no bigger than the tart. Cut the tart into fingers sizes. Stack 2 slices of the tart on top of each other and place on the line of puree. Drain the paradise pear place on a plate (slice in quarters if you want to). Spoon a teaspoon of the cold caramel sauce onto the plate and drag it slightly. Next place one spoon of the crumble mix on plate, quenelle a spoonful of cream and sit on top of the crumble.

.rEy.