And don't forget Pear Tatin . . . "More Good Eatz", page 51 or here - - -
Pear Tatin
Nobody said this would be easy so, before you begin, read these directions and make sure you understand ALL of ‘em!
1 sheet PUFF PASTRY, slightly defrosted (I mean, why make your own?)
4 Tbsp UNSALTED BUTTER, at room temperature
6½ Tbsp SUGAR
4-5 ripe BOSC PEARS, peeled, cored and quartered
¼ cup PEAR BRANDY
CRÈME FRAÎCHE
Roll puff pastry out to form a circle 1/8 inch thick. Trim dough to fit top of a 10” inch skillet. Moisten edges & use trimmings to form a rim around outside of circle. Cut a dime sized hole in middle of circle, place on a cookie sheet & freeze for at least an hour.
(NOTE: Once you’ve made the rim for the pastry circle, put the skillet BACK over it to make sure the edge will fit down snugly inside the pan. When this thing is frozen, you want to be sure rim doesn’t hang OUTSIDE of pan! It wouldn’t be pretty.)
Preheat oven to 375°F then prepare tart filling: Spread butter on inside of a heavy ovenproof 10”skillet. Sprinkle 4 Tbsp sugar over butter. Reserving one piece of the peeled, cored and quartered pear, arrange pears, cut-side down, in a tight-circle around edge of pan, points to center. Cram as much fruit in as possible and place the reserved piece, on top, in the center, round side down. Sprinkle 1½ Tbsp sugar over the top.
Cook pears over high heat (depending on your stove, obviously) swirling gently until sugar has caramelized. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll see the butter melt, and as the pears release some of their liquid, a pale yellow “sauce” develops. The sauce then starts to turn an increasingly darker shade of gold. You want the sauce to get to the color of Kraft caramels but I also use my nose as tip off. If it starts to SMELL burnt, it’s well on it’s way there! (Keep a close eye and/or nostril on this as you don’t want to let it go too far or everything will burn, you’re screwed and you’ll have to start all over again and we HATE it when that happens.)
When the pears are ready, remove pan from heat, take crust from freezer and place it snugly , rim-side down, over pears in skillet like a box top. Place skillet on a baking sheet in the oven (to catch any overflow) and bake on center rack until crust is browned, anywhere from 30-45 minutes.
Carefully remove skillet from oven, and place it briefly over high heat on the stove-top to loosen any caramel that may have stuck. Next, the trickiest and most critical step . . .
De-pan the tart by placing a wire cake rack, top side down, on top of the skillet, then put a flat 12” plate, large enough to hold entire tart, on top of the rack, face down. Using a heavy towel or oven mitts, grasp plate, rack and skillet in both hands and upend so that tart is on rack over plate. (Diagrams MAY be available). You should now have depanned tart on top of rack, over plate. Phew!
Cook pear brandy with remaining 1 Tbsp sugar for 2-3 minutes until sugar melts. Gently spoon this mixture over cooling tart. Some juice will escape through the hole in the bottom of pastry. Just pour it off and re-spoon over pears until it stops flowing. This needs to cool at least 45 minutes. Slide cooled tart off rack and serve from a platter or what-have-you. As always, I strongly recommend crème fraîche as the topping of choice.
