GALLETTE OF SPICE ROASTED PEARS

Ingredients

Description

These little tarts make a beautifully elegant dessert, made from a thin disk of crisp pastry with glazed, caramelised fruits.  They look sophisticated and hard to make, but are pretty easy and your guests will be very impressed.

Method

Combine the halved pears with the spices, apple juice, sugar, lemon juice and zest and the quince paste in a small saucepan. Gently poach the fruit for thirty minutes until the pears are dark pink and tender.  The quince paste will tturn the pears a deep colour.
Meanwhile in a food processor mix the almonds, and hazelnuts, and sugar until the nuts are finely chopped.  Add the butter and process for about 20 seconds then add the whole egg and the egg white.  Process until the mixture is smooth, and then set aside.
Flour a board and roll out the pastry until 0.5 cm ¼ inch thick
Cut out 6 pastry rounds about 12cm 4 ½ inch diameter.  Prick the pastry all over with a fork.  Spread the nut paste over the circle leaving a thin 1 cm boarder of clear pastry.  Then refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Remove the pears with a slotted spoon and reserve the syrup. When they are cool enough to handle, cut them into 5mm slices.  Bring the pear and quince syrup to a boil  over a medium high heat and simmer for 10 -12 minutes until the sauce is reduced and beginning to be syrupy.  
Pre heat an oven to 220°C
Arrange the sliced pears on to the cold disks of pastry.  Brush with some syrup and bake the gallettes until the pastry is golden, about 12-13 minutes.  To check that the pastry is crisp underneath lift the one edge of the pastry with a palette knife to see that the pastry base is crisp all the way through.  They can go back into oven for another couple of minutes if necessary
Serve warm with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream or good quality double cream.

Categories

Desserts
Fruit

• 
• 
• 

flag this recipe