As I mentioned in my last post, James' parents gave us a bunch of pears from their pear tree. Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of pears. It's a texture thing. An overripe pear is completely disgusting and has no redeeming qualities. It also seems nearly impossible to catch a pear at perfect ripeness, though I'm told they're quite good if you do. Despite these culinary drawbacks, James was insistent that I make pear pie. (Even just typing that out made me gag a little). However, all I could imagine was pear mush encased in a pie crust. After doing some research I came across pear tart tatin, an alternative to the traditional apple tarte tatin.
I can still remember the first time I had a tarte tatin. My mother and I had gone apple picking and then went back to her friend's house and made this incredible dish. The whole thing just tastes of fall. Ok, now I was on board.
I used this recipe from Williams-Sonoma. It doesn't involve making a thick caramel sauce on the stovetop that more traditional tarte tatin recipes call for, so the result is more of a syrup, but it's certainly much easier and still tasty.
I neglected to place the pears core side up, but besides that minor snafu I'm pleased to report that not only did I eat pear tarte tatin, but I also enjoyed it. The pears didn't get mushy, perhaps due to the carmelization of the sugar and butter, so the natural flavor of pear is on display. I still think apple tarte tatin is the best, but that will have to wait for apple-picking season. Also, I should note that the crust was amaaaaazing. So. Good.
I guess I'm now obligated to attempt a pear pie...
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