I have rather mixed feelings about autumn. On the one hand, days are shorter and darker and colder, heralding the rapid approach of my most dreaded season, winter. On the other hand, the trees turn out in their most glamorous and brightly hued foliage (a last hurrah before dropping their clothes for the winter?), the days are never too hot and the excellent autumn fruits are in season.
Tim recently handed me a recipe he found in the local paper that celebrates one of the best of those autumn fruits, the pear. The recipe was for a Chocolate and Pear Frangipane Tart, with the pears poached in red wine before being fanned out across a bed of chocolate frangipane and bedecked with reduced red wine sauce:
You can find the same recipe online here.
What did I love about this recipe? I loved the smooth, not overly sweet taste of the chocolate frangipane against the cool, soft depth of the poached pears. I also loved the gorgeous red wine reduction sauce on top - this is one occasion where I'd say don't skip the sauce, at least if you love red wine or dessert wines.
What didn't I love? The pastry was ultra difficult to work with - even after chilling for the requisite period, it quickly turned sticky and just would not come off the baking paper I was rolling it on. In the end, I scraped it off the paper in blobs and just mooshed it into the tart pan.
I served my tart not only with the red wine sauce, but with a dollop of Greek yoghurt, which helped to make it all a little moister and slide down the throat - brilliant.
This tart, although a little fiddly to make because of the number of elements, is quite delicious and well worth the effort if you have the time.
10 comments:
More power to you Gaye! There is no way I can work with pastry especially "fiddly" pastry:)
I think it's adorable than Tim hunted down a recipe for you:) Of course, if someone would bake up this Chocolate and Pear Frangipane Tart I would gladly dig in!!! In the mean time, I'll be pinning it just in case I get overly ambitious!
Thank you so much for sharing, Gaye...
I feel the same way about Autumn Cakelaw!! There are more pluses though than in Winter! :D
I love autumn - even when it is warm it is lovely to be able to go out without worrying about the UV so much (as it has been lately). And that tart looks superb - never had chocolate frangipani but I am sure I would love it and pears always look so pretty
I also have mixed feelings of fall. It certainly is a beautiful time of the year, but I so dislike that winter is around the corner. Tell Tim, he picked a great recipe. It looks luscious!
This certainly looks like a good way to make autumn more appealing. I love the sound of the flavours although the fiddly pastry would be annoying. You did a good job with yours though - you can't tell it was hard to work with.
Dear Gaye, this tart combines the most delicious of flavors and I know I would love to try that recipe!
Chocolate and pear - one of my all time favourites! Looks great
I do love in season pears! I bought some today and was disappointed---should have known! Your tart sounds terrific!
Oh, that sounds very unusual. I love a good pear tart and a frangipane, but I have not had one with a red wine sauce. The pears are perfect right now!!
Great, a post about your weather and a photo to show me what you have there right now, I love that...I would love to see more seasonal photos! lol Like you don't have enough to do. :-) Pear tarts are so lovely, a nice reason to have fall indeed.
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