A recipe from Darryl McLean from Basils @ 297 Restaurant
Ingredients
Base
- 1 2/3 cups plain flour
- 110g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 110g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
Filling
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 165g caster sugar
- 180ml thickened cream
- 3 pears
- 2 cups port
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 200ml fresh orange juice
- icing sugar to serve
Toffee
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1/4 cup roasted hazelnuts
Method
Peel, halve& core pears, set aside. Add port, water & brown sugar to a medium pan. Stir over low heat til sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high & bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium. Add pears in a single layer & place a disc of non-stick baking paper (large enough to cover pears) on top. Place a smaller lid on top of the paper, to make sure pears remain covered with liquid. Simmer gently for 20 mins til tender. Set aside to cool. Cover with plastic wrap & place in fridge for 6 hrs/ overnight allowing flavours & colours to develop.
Pastry: combine flour & icing sugar in a food processor, add butter & process until fine breadcrumbs. Add egg, process til mixture comes together in a ball. Wrap in plastic & place in fridge for 30 mins. Roll out pastry to line a 26cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Freeze for 10 mins. Preheat oven to 190 deg C. Line pastry with baking paper, fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice and bake for 10 mins. Remove paper & weights & return to oven for further 5 mins. Remove and reduce oven to 175 deg C.
Filling: drain the pears well, then slice thinly lengthways and place evenly over bottom of pastry. In a mixer, beat together the eggs, yolk and sugar. Add the orange juice, beat in the cream, then strain into the tart shell over the pears. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until just set. Serve at room temperature with toffee and dusted with icing sugar.
Toffee: crush hazelnuts and spread evenly on a tray lined with baking paper. Add water and caster sugar to a small, heavy-based saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil until mixture changes colour to light brown (approximately 5-8 minutes) and remove from heat. Pour toffee mixture over hazelnuts and put aside to set. Break into small pieces to garnish tart.