TWD: Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart

This is going to be short and sweet. I made this lovely tart for Thanksgiving because I thought it would be an interesting addition to the old standbys: apple, pumpkin, pecan, cranberry etc. All in all we ended up with EIGHT kinds of pie...seriously. At least we had about 30 people to eat it all up and there were tons of leftovers for breakfast on Friday morning.

This pie consists of a basic tart shell, pistachio pastry cream, pears poached in red wine with orange and lemon peel, and caramelized pistachios. The tart was very tasty, but I'm not completely sure that I'd make it again because it did end up being pretty labor intensive. I've never poached pears before and I have to say they turned out fantastically! I will definitely be experimenting more with different pear poaching recipes. I also really loved the caramelized pistachios- I could have eaten those by the handful. The pistachio pastry cream was good, but not great. Now part of this is probably because I could not find unsalted pistachios anywhere so I shelled some salted ones and rinsed and dried them. I opted for leaving the ground nuts in the cream and ended up thinning it out with about a 1/2 cup of freshly whipped cream. Honestly, I just don't love pastry cream. I made the wine reduction syrup to top the tart and promptly forgot it in the refrigerator- I'm sure it would have been a wonderful compliment! oops!


The tart is beautiful with the white and red pears and the green nuts and it was well received by my family so I am glad that I went ahead and made it. This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was chosen by Lauren of I'll Eat You (recipe is on her blog and in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours).

TWD: French Pear Tart and Why I Have Been MIA...

I'm back! I feel so bad that I have let myself slip like this- but the important thing is that I'm back now! To be honest, the reason that I have been so absent these last few months is that I'm pregnant again! Yep, baby #2 will be here in July- which means that I have been wracked with fatigue and extreme food aversions- however, I'm happy to report that I am now entering into the 2nd trimester so my energy is coming back and slowly but surely the thought of nearly every single type of food no longer makes me ill. I was especially happy that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for the French Pear Tart sounded appealing to me because it was chosen by none other than Dorie Greenspan! How exciting is that?! Be sure to check out her blog for the recipe and to see how this thing should really look!!


The tart is really delicious! The crust is buttery and slightly sweet and the filling is comprised mostly of ground almonds, butter, sugar- of course this is all topped off by sliced fresh pears! While the pie baked I felt instantly transported back to my semester abroad in France. The scent of the buttery pastry mixed with the almonds was so reminiscent of the bakeries that stood on every street corner. This is the kind of dessert that tastes really complicated but is actually pretty simple and yields excellent results!


So I'll leave you with this:
Helen Mae... showing off one of her newest tricks: squinting. Note how she is blissfully unaware that in a few short months she'll be sharing the spotlight with baby peanut.