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Last night I made a lovely tart: it has a lower vanilla cheese layer, topped with sliced cooked pears in a vanilla-caramel sauce and walnuts. It didn't turn out exactly right (although it's good) but the modifications were clear and simple! It looked quite nice too; I wish I had my digital camera to take a pic of it.
Ingredients
For the Crust:
-1 1/2 c. flour (I used a combo of white, whole-wheat and spelt)
-4 tsp. sugar
-1/2 c. shortening (I used butter-flavored b/c it was in the fridge)
-approx. 1/4 c. ice water
For the Cheese Layer:
-8 oz. softened neufchatel cheese
-2 eggs
-1/4 c. sugar (plus more if you like sweeter; I used 1/2 c. which was a little too much)
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
For the Pear and Walnut Topping:
-4 pears (I used Bosc), rinsed, then cored and cut into twelfths; slightly underripe is good (but not too underripe, as I have learned)
-About 3/4 c. halved or coarsely-chopped walnuts
-About 1/4 c. butter
-About 1/2 c. brown sugar (note the approximate measurements!)
-Generous dash of vanilla alcohol (I used homemade vanilla cordial; vanilla rum or vanilla vodka would work)
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 10" tart pan, unless it's non-stick.
2. Make crust: blend together flours and sugar, cut in fat until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add water a tiny bit at a time, mixing, until the crust can be formed into a ball. Roll out between two sheets of plastic or wrapped paper, then press into tart pan. Cut off extra around the edges. Put pie weights in the center and bake blind for about 5 minutes.
3. Make cheese layer: cream together the cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla until well-blended and pour into crust. Bake for about 20 minutes until cheese is set. Keep an eye on the tart while it's baking to be sure that the crust doesn't overbake.
4. Remove tart to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the pear layer. Heat the butter in a large pan over medium to medium-high heat (I had to cook pears in two batches because of pan size: you don't want to crowd the pears too much). Add pears to pan and cook, stirring gently off and on, until pears are starting to brown and are tender. Sprinkle brown sugar over pears. Reduce heat to low, and stir gently until sugar has blended with melted butter to form a sauce. Add a good splash of the vanilla liquor. Stir gently, let sauce bubble & reduce a little, and be sure pears are uniformly coated.
5. Remove pan from heat. (If sauce gets too thick to work with, put back over low heat temporarily.) With tongs, remove pear slices and arrange them in a wide ring around the outside edge of the tart, pointing in. (You may have extra pears left at the end. Eat them.) When you are done there should still be an opening in the center of the tart that is several inches across, and there should be some of the caramel sauce left in the pan. Toss the walnuts into the pan, stir to coat with sauce, and spoon them into the center of the tart. Then brush the remainder of the caramel sauce onto the pear wedges and any gaps of cheese layer showing through between them. (If you start to run out of sauce, toss in some more brown sugar, a little more butter and a little more vanilla cordial, heat a bit and stir until it has melted into the sauce.) Chill, cut and serve.
Like I said, my first try had a couple of errors: the pears were too hard (I cut them too thick--only into eighths, not twelfths--and mine were quite underripe) and the cheese layer was a little too sweet. This should correct for that, though. Otherwise, I really liked how the tart turned out!
Ingredients
For the Crust:
-1 1/2 c. flour (I used a combo of white, whole-wheat and spelt)
-4 tsp. sugar
-1/2 c. shortening (I used butter-flavored b/c it was in the fridge)
-approx. 1/4 c. ice water
For the Cheese Layer:
-8 oz. softened neufchatel cheese
-2 eggs
-1/4 c. sugar (plus more if you like sweeter; I used 1/2 c. which was a little too much)
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
For the Pear and Walnut Topping:
-4 pears (I used Bosc), rinsed, then cored and cut into twelfths; slightly underripe is good (but not too underripe, as I have learned)
-About 3/4 c. halved or coarsely-chopped walnuts
-About 1/4 c. butter
-About 1/2 c. brown sugar (note the approximate measurements!)
-Generous dash of vanilla alcohol (I used homemade vanilla cordial; vanilla rum or vanilla vodka would work)
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 10" tart pan, unless it's non-stick.
2. Make crust: blend together flours and sugar, cut in fat until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add water a tiny bit at a time, mixing, until the crust can be formed into a ball. Roll out between two sheets of plastic or wrapped paper, then press into tart pan. Cut off extra around the edges. Put pie weights in the center and bake blind for about 5 minutes.
3. Make cheese layer: cream together the cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla until well-blended and pour into crust. Bake for about 20 minutes until cheese is set. Keep an eye on the tart while it's baking to be sure that the crust doesn't overbake.
4. Remove tart to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the pear layer. Heat the butter in a large pan over medium to medium-high heat (I had to cook pears in two batches because of pan size: you don't want to crowd the pears too much). Add pears to pan and cook, stirring gently off and on, until pears are starting to brown and are tender. Sprinkle brown sugar over pears. Reduce heat to low, and stir gently until sugar has blended with melted butter to form a sauce. Add a good splash of the vanilla liquor. Stir gently, let sauce bubble & reduce a little, and be sure pears are uniformly coated.
5. Remove pan from heat. (If sauce gets too thick to work with, put back over low heat temporarily.) With tongs, remove pear slices and arrange them in a wide ring around the outside edge of the tart, pointing in. (You may have extra pears left at the end. Eat them.) When you are done there should still be an opening in the center of the tart that is several inches across, and there should be some of the caramel sauce left in the pan. Toss the walnuts into the pan, stir to coat with sauce, and spoon them into the center of the tart. Then brush the remainder of the caramel sauce onto the pear wedges and any gaps of cheese layer showing through between them. (If you start to run out of sauce, toss in some more brown sugar, a little more butter and a little more vanilla cordial, heat a bit and stir until it has melted into the sauce.) Chill, cut and serve.
Like I said, my first try had a couple of errors: the pears were too hard (I cut them too thick--only into eighths, not twelfths--and mine were quite underripe) and the cheese layer was a little too sweet. This should correct for that, though. Otherwise, I really liked how the tart turned out!