Half moons of pear tucked into luscious, salty-sweet filling. # 277: Pear Sesame Tart

Before you say anything… the recipe told me to put chocolate on top! I promise it was Ruby Tandoh’s genius and not just me being chocolate-happy.

Since sesame has that nutty savory taste that’s so similar to peanut butter, the dark chocolate peared beautifully with it. (Hehe the pun is all me. You’re welcome.)

We’ve entered the cozy baking season and I am here for it! I bookmarked this recipe months ago, but waited til sweater weather to try out the sesame custard and pear combo.

I will try my best to pear down my use of puns for the rest of this post. (Gotcha!)

What’s up shortcrust pastry! Though it’s got all the same ingredients as shortbread, it usually has a lower percentage of butter to flour.

The most soothing part of my day.

Ok so this recipe was a little too close to shortbread, and refused to come together and roll out, even with the extra water added.

I went with the classic lemon bar crust solution: dump it into the prepared pan and press it into shape. Not as flat and even, but better than starting over again!

This mise en place felt so random: lemon zest, chocolate, sesame and vanilla. Baking really is alchemy.

Dance of the brown sugar and butter. (Never too early for Nutcracker music!)

I didn’t have enough sesame seeds on hand, so I subbed out half for tahini. I love the magic of tahini and nut butters! To go from a pile of dry seeds to a creamy spread honestly blows my mind. It’s incredible that they can have so much oil hidden inside that when you break them down fine enough, they let it go and float along.

Luckily the more liquid consistency didn’t mess with the texture of the custard, as it didn’t have any added fat.

The elegant bosc pear I bought wasn’t even close to ripe, so I went rogue and used a lovely squishy bartlett. I liked the extra sweetness, and they held their shape just fine!

Ta-daa!

The pressed-in crust worked beautifully. We can claim it’s rustic on purpose. The first cut had that suspiciously pale underbaked color, but the bottom is golden and crisp, so we’re going with it!

Happy munching!

Recipe from: Crumb by Ruby Tandoh