A Chocolate-Pear Tart for Dinner with Friends

What could be better on a cold winter’s night than a dinner with dear friends, especially when it starts with martinis and finishes with chocolate?

We know – everyone’s still hot on their resolutions to eat less, eat lighter, eat healthier. That’s all well and good … but somewhere in there, there has to be room for an occasional indulgence, and for lots of us, that means CHOCOLATE.

Shutter is a milk chocolate fan; hand him a Kit Kat bar and he’ll be very happy. Me, I’m a chocolate snob; it has to be dark, and the good stuff (and fair trade too – I don’t want my pleasure to come at the expense of Ivory Coast child slaves, as reported today on CNN). Dark chocolate is good for you, we’re now told, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Even Dr. Weil puts “plain dark chocolate (sparingly)” at the top of his Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid.

Meze to start the evening

The first course was a rich onion tart

Nothing beats pot roast for winter comfort

Pot roast, onion tart and sauteed zucchini

So when we were invited to good friends’ on recent Saturday night, and I offered to bring dessert, it had to include dark chocolate.  After their superb meal – those crisp martinis with homemade hummus, olives and Greek feta, followed by an onion tart, pot roast and sauteed baby zucchini – this luscious treat completed the evening.

Pear and Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

Pear and Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

This recipe is from one of my very favorite new baking books, “In the Sweet Kitchen,” by Canadian baking genius Regan Daley. I’ve turned to it again and again since I first used it in my weekly column for The Record last year – that column and the recipe for Daley’s amazing Oatmeal Stout Cake is HERE.

First, make the Pate Sucree (French for sweet tart pastry):

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse several times just to blend. Add the bits of cold butter and pulse until the largest pieces of the mixture are about the size of the fat peas. Add the egg yolks and pulse two or three times, just until the mixture looks moist and crumbly and comes together in a clump when you squeeze it. Don’t overwork it.

Flour your fingers and press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of a 10 to 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375. Prick the bottom of the tart shell all over with a fork. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper or foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the edges are just coloring and the bottom is beginning to cook. Remove the liner and weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until lightly browned all over. Let the shell cool while you make the filling.

4 ounces best-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

5 or 6 medium-sized pears (Anjou or Bartlett), ripe but still firm

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling

Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400. Scatter the chopped chocolate evenly over the bottom of the cooled tart shell. Peel and halve the pears, the core them using a melon baller to scoop out just the round seed area. Place one pear half, cut-side down, on a cutting board. Using a sharp, thin-bladed knife, slice the pear into very thin slices horizontally, keeping the shape intact. Gently press hour hand down upon the curve, fanning the slices back towards the wide end of the pear, like dominos. Slide a butter knife under the sliced pear half and transfer it to the tart shell, with the narrow end facing the center. Repeat this process with the other pear halves until the tart shell is full, but don’t crowd it; any space between the fanned pear halves will be filled with the custard.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla seeds or extract. Add the cream and whisk to combine. Pour this custard over the pears, being careful not to overfill it (you may have some custard left over). Sprinkle the tart with the 2 tablespoons of sugar and put the tart on a baking sheet.

Bake the tart for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and continue baking until the custard is just set in the center, about 40 to 50 minutes more. Allow tart to cool completely before slicing.