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Pears

    Pear Frangipane pie

  1. picture of Pear Frangipane pie Pears

  2. picture of Pear Frangipane pie Pears

  3. picture of Pear Frangipane pie Pears

    4. For the pastry, the simple rule is half fat to flour, I made six tarts in all and they’re varying in size and depth. For the pastry I used 1 kg plain flour 250 g of block butter and 250 g of lard. So for a single tart approx 
    	180g plain flour 
	45g block butter 
	45g lard
    Rub together then add a little cold water to bind - 2 tablespoons or so - don't make it too soft.
    Rest the pastry in the fridge for 30 mins or so, before rolling out, and use spreadable butter to line the tins, so much easier to apply. To get thin pastry, roll the pastry between baking parchment/greaseproof paper. It doesn't stick to the roller or worktop, and it means you can place it in the tart tin much easier

    The pastry needs to be thin, depth of a £1 coin.

    There's two ways of baking the tarts. If it's done fresh, then you need to blind bake the pastry for 10 mins or so to stop it going soggy. Because I'm making a number of tarts and I freeze them, I don't blind bake them because I cook them straight from frozen, which cooks the pastry from outside in, whilst the middle of the tart is defrosting - straight into a 180deg oven. So, what I do is freeze the pastry case, add jam, freeze the case again, before adding the filling, which I then freeze again - so at no point can the filling soggy up the pastry.
    If blind baking, don't trim the pastry, leave it overhanging until it's blind baked and then trim it, otherwise it shrinks and you end up with a tart with no sides
    Which ever method, I coat the bottom of the tarts with jam of various types, mainly raspberry.
    For the frangipane I used 1 kg of butter 1 kg ground almonds 1 kg castor sugar, rind of 2 lemons and 20 eggs, so for single tart probably 
    175g butter
175g caster sugar
175g ground almonds
3 large eggs
Zest of a lemon
    Beat the butter (get it out early to go soft) and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time, Fold in the almonds and the lemon zest. That's it - pour over the pears.
    Remember, the frangipane will rise, so don't fill to the top.
    Cook the tart for about 45mins. until the pears are just cooked and the frangipane golden.