Pears, tarts and Instapastry
It's pear time: here's an easy recipe for pastry which I think might just be life-changing. It was for me.
I’ve resisted growing pears up till now
I hardly ever buy pears: Eddie Izzard sums up why in his fruit bowl sketch. At the grocer’s, it’s almost impossible to buy them ‘right’: you confidently go through the rack giving them a squeeze and they’re all unrelenting and rock hard and then suddenly that ONE PEAR gets you, your fingers sink into it and you have to buy it due to your ID being imprinted in it. (Please don’t tell me off for feeling the fruit - my grocer is happy for me to do it if he is too busy to do it himself).
So I think I should grow my own. This epiphany has come about mainly due to the fact that I’ve made this pear tart twice in the last month and it is absolutely delicious. And by that, I mean properly ‘did you really make this’ delicious, and second helpings tasty. It is the easiest, easiest thing to rustle up - and even if you don’t like pears, use the pastry for a lemon tart, or a savoury version: I add parmesan instead of the icing sugar and use it for a fabulous goat’s cheese and red onion tart.
I think this pastry may change your life.
Choosing pear trees
Before we get on to the recipe, here are the pears I’ll be ordering now for planting in the winter. I know I’ll have to wait a while for fruit, but it’s the principle of the thing: the only fruit tree in my garden is a mulberry, and I feel a real urge to have more productive trees. My garden isn’t huge, so pretty pear blossom will be a bonus decorative factor. Where on earth I’m going to squeeze them in is a whole other story: if I had a wall to train them against, I’d get ones that have started been trained in an espalier. I’ll be going into espaliers/maidens/standards in another post - for now, choosing which variety of pear is the first step:
Pear partners
I’ve done my research based on pears I’ve planted in other people’s orchards; these two are my favourites for cropping, taste and, let’s face it, looks. For whatever the texture, a bowl of pears is a still-life of beauty in itself.
Pear ‘Beurré Hardy’1 is one such beauty. It has creamy white, tender, juicy flesh, with a sweet, aromatic flavour with a hint of rosewater. And it produces fruit like crazy, as long as it has a good pollination partner - planted on its own, it won’t do anything.
Pollination partners
Some fruit tree varieties need a pollination partner to produce fruit. The pollination partner must be planted close enough to ensure pollinators can move between the two trees, e.g. in the same garden or in a neighbour’s garden. They must be of the same fruit variety (pears with pears, apples with apples etc). And critically, they must be in a compatible pollination group. Pollination groups are denoted by a letter (A, B, C etc.) and each pollination group is compatible with itself, as well as with the letter on either side of it in the alphabet. Don’t panic if your brain doesn’t like this - mine doesn’t either:
The reason I say don’t panic is because there are plenty of websites that do this bit for you - a really easy one to use is Keepers Nursery. You simply choose the variety you like best, and then scroll down to ‘pollinator partners’ where it then shows you a range to choose from.
A really good partner for Pear ‘Beurré Hardy is Pear ‘Doyenne du Comice’, but as much as I’m tempted by its flavour and popularity, I’ve instead been won over by the sheer beauty of this red Pear ‘Sensation’. I’ve got visions of pear-laden trees positively glowing in autumn:
The aim is that in three or four years’ time, I can use my own fruit to make at least one of these pear and almond tart. It’s delicious enough with tinned fruit, but I can’t help thinking just how satisfying it’ll be to use home-grown pears in it.
This recipe is one of my favourites. It appears in Rhubarb Rhubarb and it’s therefore easy, and people absolutely love it. Bearing in mind cooking isn’t always at the top of my to-do list, I really like making it. I even offer to make it for other people. It’s great for entertaining because you can make it ahead, which means you then get to enjoy yourself later.
It’s made with the famous ‘instapastry’ and really isn’t complicated2 And most importantly, THERE IS NO ROLLING REQUIRED.
If you’re using the pastry for savoury tart, replace the icing sugar with parmesan:
Pear and almond tart
Serves 6
For the pastry
110g butter, hard from the fridge
175g plain flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
1⁄2 tsp vanilla essence
This is what you do:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
To make the pastry case for the tart, put all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until you get breadcrumb lookalikes.
Press the mixture with your fingers, like plasticine, into a 22cm flan tin.
Bake in the oven until light brown then leave it to cool.
It is then ready to fill.
Now make the filling. If you’re using blanched almonds, put them in a food processor and grind to a fine crumb. If you are using ground almond, no need – obviously!
For the filling
Heat your oven to 180°C again
150g blanched or ground almonds
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 egg plus one egg yolk
45g plain flour
450g tinned pear halves, or poached fresh pears
Method
Beat the butter until softened.
Then beat in the sugar.
Now gradually beat in the whole egg and egg yolk.