Pear and Fig Tart

I love pears, yet I often forget about them. This very easy recipe looks elegant enough for entertaining, or whenever you want to have a lovely sweet treat!

Makes 4-6 servings:

Pastry:

8oz      Unbleached all-purpose flour

4oz      Sweet butter (room temperature) cut into ½” pieces

Mix the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. (You can use a food processor if you like,  I just find making pastry very therapeutic so I love blending the butter into the flour by hand). Add cold water to bind into a ball (be careful not to add too much, you don’t want a “wet” ball). Lightly flour a surface and roll out the pastry so it’s the size of a 10” dinner plate. Put the dinner plate on top of the pastry and cut around it. Roll the edges over a couple of times to form a rim. The final pastry base should be around 8-10” in diameter. Heat the over to 425.

Filling:

3 Tbs        fig jam/preserves

2                large ripe pears – whatever your favorite variety is or what’s available

1Tbs         Greek honey with walnuts

Slide the pastry base onto a greased baking sheet and spread with the fig jam/preserve. Peel and core the pears and cut into thin slices and arrange in a circular pattern overlapping each slice in the center. Pour the Greek honey and walnuts into the center.

Brush the pastry rim with an egg wash and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Let it cool a little as the fig jam gets really hot. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.