☕ Seriously...

It is seriously high season for pears and so there is no reason to refrain myself from eating each and everyone one of them that happens to land in the fruit bowl. Fresh, I enjoy their delicate perfume and sweet, juicy taste while thinking that the month of the wine in Eastern Europe would just as seriously take the fruit to the top - pear in read wine anyone?

Since February is intended around here (west side of Europe) as the month of love (don't get me started on this Valentine thing...I may bite), I have set the wine aside and taken the seasonal and traditional route of a plain, yet deliciously sweet, pear tart. That's it, just a sublime tart to celebrate the 17th century dedication to successful pear growing (three hundred varieties were known a the time!) in France rather than some fake 21th century marketing celebration. Back to our fruits: have you ever tried the Crassane variety? If not, you are missing on one of nature's pieces of art, one that would have made Louis XIV's taste buds very happy, not to mention that it would have satisfied his skilled art at peeling fruit so that the skin could be put perfectly back into place...

Fast forward to present times: the perfect cooking inspiration was found in Donna Hay's fantastic book, Seasons. It took a while for me to receive it all the way from Australia, but it was definitely worth waiting given the quality of the photographs, the layout and the highly entertaining and easy to follow recipes - simple and efficient. The recipe calls for almonds and I am a firm believer in the perfectly loving match of those with the glorious pears.

Here we go, start peeling the beauties...

☕ INGREDIENTS

90 gr soft butter

90 gr brown sugar (+ a bit more for sprinkling)

2 eggs

120 gr ground almonds

35 gr flour

A bit of baking powder

2 teaspoons of lemon rind

2 peeled pears (cored and quartered)

Double cream to serve (I did without and the tart was very happy on its own)

☕ HOW TO

Preheat the oven to 160 °C. Process the soft butter and brown sugar until combined. You can then add the eggs, the ground almonds, the flour, the baking powder and the lemon rind. Process again until combined too. Spoon the batter into a tart tin. Coat the sliced pears with a bit of brown sugar and place them on the batter, choosing the decorative layout you prefer. Put in the oven to bake for about 35-40 minutes. When you take the tin out of the oven, sprinkle some more brown sugar on top and let it cool.

This is also when the cold winter evening descends upon me and I just light the tealights as the final  blissful touch before biting eagerly into the soft sponge and tasty fruit slice.