Photo: Melissa Hom
Summer is coming and I really like a pie with ice cream or sorbet. If you have homemade jams or fabulous organic specialty jams you can have have a lot of fun creating little tartlets with fresh fruit added. I prefer the less sugary jams as the fruit if in season gives so much flavor. I like decorating them with candied orange zest, candied slice of lemon or pieces of fruit.
Lime Pear Tart or Tartlets
Makes – 1 – 11” tart or 12 3” tartlets
Preparation:
15 minutes to mix
½ hour in the refrigerator
Preparation and baking approximately ½ hour
Ingrediants:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cups granulated sugar
2 yolks
2 tsp. Madagascar vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
zest 1 lime
4 – 5 pears, sliced thin and tossed with sugar + 1 Tbsp. melted butter
20-oz of Pear Jam (I use the brand St. Dalfour)
In a bowl, using an electric mixer beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add salt and zest. Add to the butter mixture a little bit at a time at low speed, and beat well until well mixed.
Shape the dough into a ball. Flatten and wrap in parchment paper, and refrigerate for at least ½ hour. The dough can be prepared up to 3 days ahead, and kept in the refrigerator. Let it soften slightly at room temperature before continuing.
Preheat oven to 350 F. The tart will be placed on the highest shelf of the oven so as to not get too brown. Prepare a nonstick tart pan by spraying with a nonstick spray. When ready remove approximately 1/4th of the dough and keep in the refrigerator until ready to be used.
Using your fingers the remaining dough should be pressed down into the pan and around the edges as evenly as possible. Remove any excess dough and save to decorate if desired, or make cookies. Cover the bottom with the marmalade. Cover the top of the tart decoratively with the slices of pear. Take the remaining dough from the fridge. Using some flour, as little as possible you can create a lattice on top or even use cookie cutters of your choice and decorate the top of the tart. Brush the top of the tart and the fruit with jam.
Bake for approximately 50 minutes.
**Note: Obviously you can substitute the marmalade with another jam of choice. At times I like to add ½ cup nuts like ground macadamia, almond, pistachio or hazelnuts in the crust.
You can substitute the pear jam and sliced pears with seasonal fruit such as apricots, peaches, grapes, apples, figs and their corresponding jams. Pick your favorite fruit. Have fun baking!
