On Our List: Seckel Pear Tart from Gourmet

Every once in a while, we get a hankering to make something a little complicated. Something that involves a neat set of steps, takes concentration, and results in a splashy presentation. This tart, which includes sugary seckel pears and the pear brandy we told you about yesterday, may be the ticket...

It would even require us to buy a new, rectangular tart pan, if we wanted to follow the instructions exactly (although we're pretty sure you could nestle those seckels in a round tart pan). And we might spend half our day blind baking our tart crust, coring the pears from the bottom while leaving the stems intact, waiting for glaze to cool...

But the layers of pear flavor—the seckel pears are poached in wine plus the juice of Bartlett pears and the pastry cream and glaze are both spiked with Poire William—just sounds irresistible.

What do you think? Could this be a show stopper on your holiday table?

Get the recipe: Seckel Pear Tart with Poire William Cream, from Gourmet

(Image: John Kernick for Gourmet)

Comments (4)

This is SO tempting.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on December 2nd 2008 at 12:30pm
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Looks like three pears sitting on a couch to me.

Also looks very tasty.

:)

posted by Wisconsin Kate on December 2nd 2008 at 1:01pm
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I was compelled to buy a rectangular tart pan the other day, and now I know the first thing I'm going to make in it!

posted by Emily Ho on December 2nd 2008 at 3:17pm
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This recipe looks suspiciously like Julia Child's Pear Clafouti in The Way to Cook. She bakes hers in a round tart pan. My mom has made this recipe several times, and sometimes she makes it in individual tartelette pans -- one poached pear per tarte. It's a bit more time consuming, but so cute.

posted by kfolks on December 3rd 2008 at 10:19am
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