Caramelised Pear Tarts

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Pastry  Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Beat the lemon juice and egg
with  2tbsp iced water, then chill until thickened. Sift the flour,
icing  sugar and salt into a bowl, then rub in the butter until the
mixture  resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the chilled liquid and stir until
the mixture binds to form a  loose dough. Turn out and knead lightly
until smooth. Wrap and chill  for 30 minutes.  Pastry cream:  Put the
cream in a saucepan. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the cream,  add the
pod, then bring the cream to the boil.  Blend the yolks, flour,
cornflour and sugar in a bowl. Gradually pour  the hot cream on to the
yolks, whisking continuously. Rinse the pan  and return the mixture to
a low heat. Cook gently, stirring until  thickened. Remove the vanilla
pod and cover with buttered greaseproof  paper or clingfilm to prevent
a skin forming.  Pear pure:  Cook the sliced pears gently in a heavy
based pan with the sugar,  lemon zest and 1tbsp water until the pears
collapse and form a puree.  Remove the lemon zest and discard. Stir in
the brandy or liqueur.  Taste and add more sugar if necessary.  Pear
topping:  Divide the pastry cream between the tarts. Top with 1tbsp of
pear  pure in the centre. Peel, core and halve the whole pears. Slicing
diagonally from the bulbous end of each half but keeping the stalk  end
intact, fan out the slices.  Put a pear half on top of each tart,
rounded side up with the base  fanned out. Sieve icing sugar generously
over the pears. Bake in a  hot oven 220C/gas 7 for 10-12 minutes to
caramelise the pear. If the  fruit does not caramelise quickly enough
and rather than leave it in  the oven too long when the pastry may
suffer, either dredge with  icing sugar and caramelise carefully under
a hot grill or give it a  quick blast with a blow torch to achieve the
golden tinged effect.  Serve with a small bayleaf at the stalk end of
each pear.  Toffee sauce:  Blanch the walnuts, place in a saucepan and
cover with cold water.  Bring to the boil, then drain Rub the skins
from the nuts, then chop  roughly.  Place the caster sugar in a
saucepan with 3tbsp water. Heat gently  until the sugar is dissolved,
then bring to the boil. Boil rapidly  until the syrup becomes a deep
caramel colour.  Quickly whisk the cream and butter into the caramel.
The sauce will be  lumpy at first but keep whisking and it will become
smooth and glossy.  Stir the chopped walnuts into the sauce.  Converted
by MC_Buster.

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
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Calories: 2942
Calories From Fat: 2033
Total Fat: 232.5g
Cholesterol: 1019.2mg
Sodium: 3971mg
Potassium: 714.8mg
Carbohydrates: 187.3g
Fiber: 9.7g
Sugar: 2g
Protein: 41.5g