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Pear and Ginger Brown-Butter Tart

Source of Recipe

Nancy Silverton


List of Ingredients

sweet tart pastry dough (sufficient for a 10-inch tart)

Ginger Brown Butter:
1 1/2 ounces fresh gingerroot
7 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 ounces unsalted butter

PEARS:
6 pears, poached,reserve 1 cup after poaching (preferably Bosc or Comice, slightly underripe)
6 ounces fresh gingerroot, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
4 cups sugar syrup (1/2 sugar and 1/2 water boiled untril sugar is dissolved. cooled)
1 cup water
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
1/4 cup lemon juice



Recipe

Ginger Brown-Butter: Slice the unpeeled ginger root into 1/4 inch rounds.
set aside.
Sift flour and ground ginger.
Set aside.
Whisk together the eggs and sugar until combined.
Beat in flour and ground ginger.
set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat butter with vanilla bean and ginger root over high heat until brown and foamy.
Continue heating until bubbles subside and the butter is dark brown and smoking.
Whisking continuously, pour hot butter in a steady stream into the egg mixture.
Combine well.
Strain and discard vanilla bean and ginger root.
The ginger brown-butter can be made to this point and refrigerated for a week.
Warm to room temperature before using.
Poaching the Pears: Combine all ingeredients except pears in a stainless steel saucepan.
Peel, halve and core pears and drop immediately into liquid.
Place a clean kitchen towel over the pears on the surface of the liquid, to keep them submerged.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to just below a simmer until the pears can be easily pierced with a wooden skewer.
Spread pears on a parchment lined sheetpan and refrigerate until cool.
These will keep covered for a couple of days.
Reserve 1 cup of the poaching liquid.
Assembling The Tart: Preheat oven to 350.
Line a 10-inch tart ring with sweet tart dough.
Pour or pipe ginger brown butter into the pastry shell, filling to 1/2 inch of the top.
Place pears, cut side down on a cutting board and cut them crosswise into 1/8 inch slices.
Keep the sliced pear halves in tact.
Press slightly to shingle the slices and slightly elongate their shape.
Slip a thin offset spatula under each of the sliced pear halves and place on top of the brown butter, stem end toward the center.
Arrange pear halves around the tart like the spokes of a wheel.
If there is room in the center add another pear half or additional slices.
You should have approximately 7 halves around the outside and one half in the middle.
This will depend largely on the size of the pears.
Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until well browned.
Cool.
Just before serving, boil the reserved poaching liquid until it reduces to 1/4 cup.
It will be very thick.
With a pastry brush, paint a thin layer of glaze over the pears.
Remove tart from the tart ring and slice.
Serve with vanilla or ginger ice cream.