The recipe for this upside down pear tart comes from my friend Michelle over at Nourish SD. She hosted a dinner party and champagne tasting last week, and this was one of my favorite dishes of the meal (which also included homemade pizza!). The recipe says you can use store bought pie crust but if you have the time and confidence, make this páte sucreé recipe included here. It really elevates the dish.
Caramelized Upside Down Pear Tart
4 large firm-ripe pears Bosc or Bartlett)
½ stick butter
½ c sugar
½ t cinnamon
Pastry dough — you can buy pre-made crust or use your favorite recipe. (The recipe for this crust, páte sucreé,is below)
Heat oven to 425 degrees.
Peel and halve the pears. Use a melon baller to remove the core (prettier that way) or you can just cut them out.
Heat the butter in a 9-10” well seasoned cast iron skillet over moderate heat until the foam subsides, then stir in the sugar – it will not be dissolved. Arrange the pears, cut sides up in the skillet with the widest end of the pears towards the outside rim. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cook, undisturbed until sugar turns a deep golden caramel color. This can take about 15 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely in skillet.
Arrange the pastry over the pears, tucking the edge around the pears inside the rim of the skillet. Bake the tart on the middle oven rack until pastry is golden brown about 30-35 minutes. Cool on rack about 5 minutes.
Invert a rimmed serving plate or platter, slightly larger than the skillet over the top. Use pot-holders to hold the skillet and plate tightly together and invert. This is the TaDa part of the dessert, so do it in front of your guests – they’ll forgive you even if the crust crumbles a little or some of the caramel stays in the pan because it is so cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, ice cream if desired.
Pâte Sucreé
This is a nice alternative to regular pastry dough. The addition of eggs and cream makes it essentially a “short” cookie crust.
3 egg yolks
2T heavy cream (I used almond milk)
2 ¾ c flour
2 sticks chilled unsalted butter
¼ c plus 3 T sugar
¼ t kosher salt
Whisk yolks and cream. Pulse remaining ingredients in food processor to coarse meal consistency. Gradually add cream mixture. Pulse until just combined. Transfer to a large lightly floured work surface and knead 4 or 5 turns, divide in half. Shape into a 1” disk. Wrap in plastic. Chill 2 hours. Let stand 15 minutes before rolling out. Reserve the other disk for another use. Freezes well.
Final notes from Michelle:
I pre-made the pastry crust, rolled it out between parchment sheets and put it in the fridge so it was ready to go when needed. I made the pears about 2 hours in advance of the party. The oven was already hot from making dinner when we sat down to eat, so the timing is perfect. It takes about 35 minutes to cook, so it was ready right as we finished up our main course.