Sugar High Friday

Jerrett, the host of SHF#9 thought that Tarts might be a good theme! Everybody loves a good tart and this is a great excuse to try out Shuna's dough recipe.
I was intrigued by the fact that you don't have to rest the dough like most recipes I use. It also gave me an excuse to purchase a few more cookbooks, in French (ahhhhh! I'll never learn that damn language!).
I found a recipe that struck my fancy. Bought the ingredients.
I present to you, Tarte au Poire-Chocolat


These books are for the home-cook. This recipe from the, Tarte Salées et Sucrées uses canned pears. It also has some different ingredients such as Crème Fraîche in the Creme de Chocolat part. You also dust the cooked crust with almond powder, that sounds interesting as well, then you add the pears, top with the Chocolate Cream. Easy & Quick!

I found the dough to be rather easy to work with. Rolled it immediately and then threw it in the freezer, comme ça! Took it out when firm and baked it blind! I have two important things I look for in a dough.

1. The Crisp Factor (I like a crispy crust)
2. The Shrink Factor (no shrinkage, please!)

The proof was in the puddin'. No Shrinkage! Wow, Shuna! Next time to give the crust a bit more color, I'm going to crank up the oven a bit, the phone rang while I was baking the crust so it didn't get the attention is deserved!