Hubby is a baker and his specialty is his grandmother’s homemade apple pie — pie crust and all.
Pssst. I don’t like apple pie.
But I love that homemade crust!
So one day he decided to substitute pears for the apples AND made smaller – individual tarts instead of a whole pie so I could have more crust. It’s one of my FAVORITES.
Here’s how he makes them.
For a dozen tarts, start out with 5-6 super ripe pears.
then peel them
and cut them up into thin slices.
Set them in a strainer to let the excess juice drain out so they don’t get mushy.
Toss the pear slices in a mixture of 1 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to taste. Place the pear slices in the refrigerator.
Now it’s time to make the crust!
Start with 2 cups of flour.
Add 2 teaspoons of salt
Start with 4 tablespoons of cold water – the dough will start out crumbly. As you continue to work with the pastry blender add 1-3 more tablespoons of cold water – working the dough until the dough starts staying together through the wires of the pastry blender.
Place your dough on a floured surface
and start to shape it into an oval.
Roll it out until it’s about 1/8″ of an inch.
(By the way – the rolling pin hubby uses is his favorite. It’s his Grandma Snyder’s rolling pin from the 1940’s passed down to him.)
Take the rim of a glass and cut out the individual crusts
and use a sharp knife to slide it underneath the dough to lift it up
and place in a greased muffin tins like so:
Now grab the pear slices from the fridge and start placing them into each individual pie tart
and pop them into a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes.
These are SO yummy. Serve them with whipped cream or ice cream to make them extra special.
Thank you, hubby, for coming up with this creation for me!
Enjoy!
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