Chocolate Pear Custard Tart

First, I must confess that I forgot to take a picture of the finished tart in all of its prettiness.  Fail.  I mentioned on the clam chowder post that we were having our friends Eric and Julie over for her birthday and I asked her what her favorite dessert was.  She mentioned custards.  So I did a little searching and came up with this.  

Chocolate Pear Custard Tart

What you'll need: 

Crust

1 Stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg.  Mix in salt and flour.  Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and shape into a disk.  Refrigerate anywhere from one hour to over night. Remove from fridge and place on floured surface. Roll out to 1/4 inch. Place dough into tart pan and gently press down to form the sides of the pan.  Cut off excess. Return to fridge for one hour.

Pie Filling

2/3 cups chopped dark chocolate

2 pears peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup ground almonds (I used slivered almonds and pulsed them in the food processor until fine)

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs (divided)

3/4 cup whipping cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla (divided)

Once pie crust is formed into pan and chilled, evenly sprinkle chocolate over bottom.

Preheat oven to 400. In food processor or using a hand mixer on high, blend one egg, one teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar and ground almonds until smooth. Evenly pour over chocolate.  Now evenly layer the pears.  In a small bowl, whisk together one egg, one teaspoon vanilla and the whipping cream.  Pour over pears.  Sprinkle top with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 45 minutes or until crust and top is golden and custard is set.  Allow to cool completely before serving.  Store leftovers in fridge.

This was really delicious.  Not too sweet, rich, creamy and great texture.  Oh man, I'm kind of sad we ate the last pieces last night.  I have already planned my next version of this tart that I think I will make for Thanksgiving. In the mean time, enjoy!

Apple Tart

This apple tart wasn't too sweet or too tart.  I made it to have something sweet for the super duper game on sunday to go with the other 8,000 calorie dishes we would be munching on.  I really like the crust.  Its a little sweeter that regular old pie crust.  Why does pie crust always have to be that same old same old flour, butter, boring old crust.  I think I'm going to stick with this crust for pies from here on out.  


What you'll need:


For the Crust
1 Stick plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt


Filling
3 granny smith apples
2 melted tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar


Glaze
Core and peels from the apples
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Zest and juice of 1 orange


Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg.  Mix in salt and flour.  Scrape dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and shape into a disk.  Refrigerate anywhere from one hour to over night. Remove from fridge and place on floured surface. Roll out to 1/4 inch. Place dough into tart pan and gently press down to form the sides of the pan.  Cut off excess.


Peel and core apples, and put aside (don't throw away).  Slice apples into 1/8 inch thick slices.  Stack them into your tart pan starting with outside and working toward middle.  Once you have filled the entire pan, you can still pack the extra slices in to the open gaps, especially around the edges. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.


Bake at 375 for 50 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden brown and apples are starting to brown on the tips.  My oven sucks, so my crust was done but my apples weren't quite browned enough so I flipped over to the broiler for a few minutes.  Worked perfect!


While tart is baking, place the glaze ingredients into a medium sauce pan.  Simmer for about 30 minutes until think and syrupy.  Strain glaze from the cores and peels.  Allow tart to cool, then generously apply glaze.

Just out of the oven, before Glaze

After Glaze

This was yummy, and next time I feel like apple pie, this will be my go to.  It was so pretty with the apples layered and browed on top.  I like not having the crust on the top.  Next time I will serve warm and make a little vanilla ice cream to go with.  Enjoy!