Pear Tart

It's Jacques Pe'pin at IHCC. The first time I saw one of his episodes on  AFC, while in Malaysia,  I realized that french cooking isn't as difficult and bland as I thought. This is one of the recipes that shows how easy cooking can be.
I didn't have a tortilla lying around and the frozen chapatti I had stashed in the freezer was a little too small even to serve 4, and I didn't want to make two. so I made a quick flour tortilla on my own.  If you have a piece of Roshi dough or a 12-inch tortilla or chappati ( uncooked) this is the perfect recipe to try for a quick and tasty treat after a meal.

Recipe : Pear Tart recipe from quick pear tart from the episode Desert First from More Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pe'pin

1 12-inch frozen ready-to-cook chapatti or tortilla

 OR

Make your own  tortilla base
1/2 cup plain flour,
pinch baking powder ( about 1/8 tsp)
pinch salt
1 tbsp vegetable fat or unsalted butter
a little hot water

for the tart
2 fresh pears
sugar about 1/4 cup
 about 3 tablespoons butter ( unsalted)
about 2 tbsp apricot jam

First, make the tortilla by rubbing the butter into the flour and baking powder and salt. Then add hot water a little at a time till it comes together and knead to make a nice pliable dough. Rest for 10 -20 minutes and then roll to about 12-inch disc.

Preheat oven to about 200 degrees celsius, 400 F gas mark 6.      
Place a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and add a tablespoon of melted butter.   What I did was, I placed a tablespoon of butter on the baking paper and placed it in the heating oven for a minute or two and it melted in a few seconds.

Take the baking sheet out and sprinkle  1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar on the butter pool. Place the tortilla on top and move it about the butter-sugar mix, turn it over, so the two sides of the tortilla is well buttered and sugared. Set aside.

Peel and quarter the pears, remove the core and cut each quarter into 3 -4 wedges.  Circularly arrange the pears on the tortilla so when you finish its like a rose. Fill the gaps with bits of pear.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar all over the tart, dot with 2 tsp of butter, just little blobs in places.  Pop in the oven for 30  minutes.

While the tart cooks, heat the apricot jam in a small saucepan over low heat to melt or even pop in the microwave for a few seconds.

Once the tart is cooked, remove and brush with the jam all over the pears.  Slice into wedges, will make about 4 large wedges or 6 smaller ones.

Enjoy.

Linking  this over to IHCC  to join to  welcome Jacques Pepin .( thats this weeks theme).. make sure to visit their site to check out all the yummy  goodness everyone else is preparing to welcome Jacques Pepin. Hoping to try his recipes and learn a bit of french  cooking in my little kitchen...