Maple Pear Tarte Tatin

What comes with living in a small town in Central Queensland, I couldn't get any maple syrup. So I used what I had and made it with Golden Syrup instead. Still just as good, in my humble opinion.

The only tarte tatin I've made previously was a savoury one so I've been looking forward to trying out this popular dessert. Pears are so beautiful at the moment, so I'm trying to make all the lovely pear dishes throughout the book. I'm pretty sure I've only got one left to go...

After making the simple sugar and syrup glaze, I added my sliced pear and let them cook for a little while in the sauce pan. I don't have a few small pans that go from stove top to oven, so when the pear was done I transferred them to two small pie dishes. I couldn't get a block of puff pastry to roll out, instead I made it thick by using two layers of already rolled puff on the top of the pastry, finally brushing them in some leftover egg yolk that I had from a previous recipe.

Bake until golden.

It was so good and so so simple, I think these might become a staple in this house. Keeping my eye out for Maple Syrup too....

Pear and Almond Tart.

One morning I had a friend coming over so the afternoon before, Noah and I made this easy-peasy tart.

The almond mixture is made in the food processor and it's nearly a matter of pop'ing all the ingredients in and processing until combined. The butter and brown sugar is done first, than everything else. Empty into a fluted tart tin and press some beautiful ripe pears that have been tossed in brown sugar into the top then bake.

Easy. Peasy.

And so yummy that I didn't get the chance to take a photo. It was gobbled up way to quick.

Definitely a nice quick recipe if visitors are coming over. No pastry required and all you have to wash is the food processor.

I love this kind of food.

Caramel Pear Pie

Pie? To me a pie has a top. And is usually filled with meat. To me, this is a tart. A Caramel Pear Tart, not Pie. But it's titled 'Pie' so a pie it shall be called.

I love the Basic Vanilla Pastry. I am not a baker. At all. Don't get me wrong, I love baking. But I also suck at it. A lot. I love this pastry because it works for me every time. I haven't managed to stuff it up yet. I follow the recipe to a tee, so that might have something to do with it. I also love that this recipe uses home made pastry rather than bought shortcrust pastry.

There's something to be said about making your own pastry. Therapeutic, it can be. If your nearly three year old isn't standing at your feet demanding to eat it raw.

Oh well. Can't hurt him.

Making this dish made me want to cook poached pears. I love the smell of cooking pear. To me it's so fresh and beautiful. I cored the pears and poached them in a little water till they were just soft. Then arranged them in my pastry lined pie dish and poured the golden syrup caramel mixture around them.

Letting this set after cooking is a big thing. Don't be too eager to cut into it. Although it smells DEVINE, resist temptation!!

And luckily, I did. It was set so beautifully when we ate it.

With the lovely crumbly pastry. So good.