The Pear Tarte Tartin that became Pear Crumble

I wanted to make a special dessert.  I had some fabulous pears that I thought would be wonderful to use.  I found a recipe for Pear Tarte Tartin that looked amazing....but I didn't feel like dealing with puff pastry, and wanted a more of a pow! crust, so I went with a graham cracker crust, but used the pear tarte tartin filling.  I topped with gingersnap granola from Sunflower market.  I thought it was a lovely first for me.  I accompanied it with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.  mmmmmmmm.... of course anything that has you making your own caramel has to be fabulouso!!

 

Pear Tarte Tatin with Vanilla and Ginger

Ingredients

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
•  
• (I did graham cracker crust instead....1 1/2 packages of graham crackers crust crushed, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/4 cup sugar, mixed together and pressed into a tart pan.  Cook at 350 degrees, for 15 minutes.)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped into small bowl
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger ( used 1 tsp powdered ginger, a couple dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 5 medium-size firm Anjou pears (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 4 wedges (I did much thinner slices)

• Topping:
• 1 cup granola
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 Tbsp sugar

Mix together and drop the topping onto the pear tart and bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown.  

Preparation

Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface to 10-inch square. Trim edges, making 10-inch-diameter round; pierce round all over with fork. Slide onto rimless baking sheet. Cover and chill pastry while preparing pears or up to 1 day.

Fill large skillet with ice and water; set aside. Stir sugar, 1/4 cup water, and corn syrup in heavy 10-inch-diameter nonstick ovenproof skillet over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and boil until syrup is dark amber color, occasionally swirling and brushing down sides of skillet with wet pastry brush, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in butter, then vanilla-bean seeds and ginger (caramel will bubble up). Arrange pears, cut side down and overlapping, in circle in skillet, placing a few around edge, if necessary. Place skillet over medium heat. Cook until pears are tender and syrup thickens enough to coat spoon, about 23 minutes. Place hot skillet atop ice in large skillet to cool pear mixture quickly. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place puff pastry round atop pear mixture in skillet; tuck in edges around pears. Bake tart until pastry is puffed and golden, about 35 minutes. Cool tart completely in pan at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Rewarm tart in oven 8 minutes. Place platter atop skillet. Using oven mitts, hold skillet and platter together and turn over, releasing tart. .

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Ingredients

(1 servings)

1  c Sugar
1/2 Lemon; juice of
2 lg Eggs
2 c Heavy or whipping cream
1 c Milk 

1 vanilla bean, split in half and seeds scraped into cream mix.  I also soaked the bean in the vanilla over night.   

Instructions

. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Whisk in sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the heavy cream and milk and vanilla seeds whisk to blend.  Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.