Freeform Pear Tart

I love this Freeform Pear Tart. I think, actually, I might be in love with this pudding. It is so simple and so tasty! I can, however, claim no glory for its invention. It’s a recipe by Donal Skehan that I found it in an old copy of delicious magazine and it’s so good I have barely felt the need to adapt it (high praise from me).

If you do manage to control yourself and find you have some left over the next day, reheat at 180C for 10-15 minutes.

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Freeform Pear Tart

Recipe Type Dessert, Pudding

Cuisine British

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Serves 6

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

Pastry:

• 225 g plain flour plus extra for rolling out
• 140 g salted butter chilled and cut into pieces
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 large egg preferably free-range or organic, beaten

Filling:

• 4 pears peeled, cored and sliced lengthways
• 1 tablespoon soft light brown sugar
• ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 egg beaten, to glaze

To serve:

• Thick or whipped cream

Method

1. Put the flour and cubes of butter into a mixing bowl and rub together until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and then add the beaten egg and stir until it begins to come together. Use your hands to form the pastry into a ball and then wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for half an hour (or longer if you fancy.)
2. Go and have a glass of wine / lie down / manicure / whatever.
3. When your thirty minutes are up. Get back into the kitchen. Turn your oven on to 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Peel and core the pears and then slice them lengthways. Pop them in a mixing bowl and toss them with the brown sugar, cinnamon and plain flour.
4. Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out to a rough circle of about 30cm diameter. (It really doesn’t matter if it doesn’t look much like a circle.) Lift the pastry onto the baking paper and then tip the pears into the middle, leaving a border of about 8cm. Fold the sides up and over the pears and brush with the beaten egg, then bake for 40 minutes or until golden.
5. Serve warm with a blob of whipped or thick cream.

Notes

Allow an extra 30 minutes to chill the pastry in the fridge (so 1h30 total time for the recipe).
If you do manage to control yourself and find you have some left over the next day, reheat at 180C for 10-15 minutes.