Almond Pear Tart

Ingredients
For Crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup margarine, cold and cubed
~1/4 cups ice cold water
For Filling
3 pears
4 Tbs almond paste
3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
For Glaze
1 tsp lemon or lime juice
2 Tbs honey
1 1/2 Tbs margarine
1 Tbs cooking sherry
1 tsp sesame seeds

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, salt, sugar in large mixing bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add ice water bit by bit until dough just comes together. Grease tart pan and press dough into pan (you can roll out the dough with a rolling pin first if need be). Place pan in freezer for ten minutes. Remove from freezer and use a fork to make holes in the bottom of the crust. Bake for 8 minutes.

Cut up almond paste into small bits and sprinkle over crust. Peel, core, and slice pears. Set in pan on top of almond paste. Mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over pears.
Combine ingredients for glaze in a small microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds. Drizzle glaze over pears/ Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until crust is a light golden brown.

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Crust taken from a Martha Stewart Recipe.

Ginger Pear Cake

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup wheatgerm
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup shredded coconut
4 ounces butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
3 large eggs
1 peeled and chopped pear


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

mix flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, all spice, salt, and coconut. Melt butter with half the water.

Whisk brown sugar, second half of water and molasses until combined. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in flour mixture until just combined. Add butter mixture, whisk until smooth.

Pour batter into greased 9 inch cake pan, and scatter pear chunks evenly over top.

Bake about 35 minutes, until center springs back when you press on it. Cool slightly before removing from pan.

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practically verbatim from a twospoons recipe.

Almond Pear Bread

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 heaping Tbs cinnamon
1 cup chopped almonds
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs honey
2 cups pears, peeled and chopped into small pieces
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in mixing bowl, stir well.
In a medium bowl, stir together oil, eggs, sugar, pear, nuts, and vanilla. Scrape the pear mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until the flour is incorporated and the batter is evenly moistened.

Divide batter into two greased loaf pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until bread is browned and firm. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Then turn it out onto a plate or a wire rack to cool completely, top side up.

optional tips: sprinkle batter with oats prior to baking, or sprinkle with powdered sugar after removing from oven.

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Adapted from a Slow Like Honey recipe.

Espresso Pear Panna Cotta

Ingredients
1/2 cup strong coffee
1/3 cup sugar
1 medium pear
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
3 Tbs milk
3 tsp powdered gelatin


Heat coffee and sugar over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Slice pears into 1 cm thick slices. Add pear slices to coffee mixture and cook over medium heat until soft (10-20 minutes) and syrups has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and place pear slices in the bottom of 4 small bowls or ramekins. Evenly distribute syrup over pears.

In a medium sauce pan, combine cream, milk, brown sugar and contents of vanilla bean. Heat until boiling on medium high, then remove from heat. Meanwhile, combine 3 Tbs milk and powdered gelatin. Stir until gelatin has dissolved. Whisk gelatin mixture into cream mixture, and set aside to cool.


When cream mixture has cooled, evenly distribute between bowls. Cover with plastic wrap, be careful not to let the panna cotta touch the plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours or overnight.

To serve, place each bowl in a larger bowl of hot water to loosen the edges. Place a small plate on top of the bowl, and quickly invert.



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Adapted from a spicyicecream recipe.

Pumpkin Pear Strudel

Ingredients

For puff pastry
1 1/8 cups flour
pinch salt
3/4 cup cold butter
about 1/2 cup cold water

For filling
2 large pears, peeled, cubed
1 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1 Tbs cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground ginger

To make the puff pastry, combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Rub in 2 Tbs butter with hands. Gradually add water until dough comes together (you probably won't need all the water). Wrap in plastic wrap, chill for 30 min. Leave remaining butter out to warm to room temperature. Roll dough into rectangle, less than 1/2 inch thick. Place remaining butter over middle third of dough. Fold sides over butter, like a letter, and press seems on the side to seal. Roll dough into original size. Fold into thirds. Roll folded dough back to original size and again fold in thirds. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 min. Repeat rolling out and folding procedure twice more. Roll dough out into a larger rectangle twice as thin.

In medium bowl, mix together pear, pumpkin, sugar, almonds and spices. Spoon longways along center of dough, covering approximately the middle 1/3 of dough. With the short side of the pastry facing you, slice sides into 1 inch strips at a downward diagonal slant, starting 1 inch from the filling, and cutting towards the edge. Starting at one end, take the first strip and fold up over filling. Take the first strip from other side, and overlap the previous strip over the filling. Repeat, alternating sides until all the strips are covering the filling. Wrap the final ends neatly around the end of the filling.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Carefully transfer pastry onto a greased baking sheet. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and puffy.

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Adapted from an Allrecipes recipe.

Pear Pie

Ingredients

For Crust (3)
3 cups flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cup butter, cold, cubed
1/3 cup ice water

For Pie
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbs flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 lemon zest and juice
5 cups peeled sliced pears
1 tbs butter



Combine flour, and powdered sugar. Cut in cold butter. Add water, bit by bit, squeezing it with your hands as you go, until a dough just forms. Divide dough into three parts and store two parts, wrapped in plastic wrap for further use.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Press dough into 9 inch pie pan, setting any excess aside. In a large bowl mix together sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon zest.

Layer pear slices onto pressed dough. Sprinkle sugar mixture and dot with butter. Repeat. Use excess dough to make a lattice covering the top of the pie.

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 and bake for approximately 40 more minutes.

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Adapted from a Williams & Sonoma recipe and a Allrecipies recipe.