Today is of course Pi Day in the US…. yes, we silly people who put month, then day, so … 3.14 aka Pie Day. Just to be silly, I did make a pie. Hasselback-Style Pear and Walnut Tart… OK, I guess it’s a Tart not a Pie. Oh well. It doesn’t look might much because the custard drowned the hasselback-style pears, but it still tastes good.
Ingredients
for the pastry
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, diced
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water
for the filling
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 small-ish pears (such as Comice), peeled, cored, cut “hasselback style”
4 tablespoons walnuts, finely chopped
Directions
Blend flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 6 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather into ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
Roll out chilled dough disk between two sheets of plastic wrap, until 1/8-inch thick and 2-inch wider than tart pan. Invert dough into tart pan; press onto bottom and up sides. If dough is soft, chill until firm enough for remaining sheet of plastic to be removed. Trim edges of dough (patch up any holes or tears with extra dough). Chill until firm, about another hour.
Preheat oven to 350F. Line dough with parchment paper or heavy-duty foil, leaving a 1-inch-2-inch overhang. Fill paper with dried beans or pie weights. Bake tart shell just until dough has dried and does not look wet in any spots, about 20 minutes. (If center still looks wet, bake crust without weights until dried and opaque, a few minutes longer.) Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes while you prepare the filling.
Whisk eggs and sugar in a medium bowl just to blend. Place butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Cook, stirring often, until butter foams, then browns (do not burn), about 5 minutes.
Let cool for 10 minutes; remove bean. Slowly whisk brown butter into egg mixture; whisk in flour and salt.
Line tart shell with pears, set together as half pears. Pour filling around to that the pears are still peeking out the top of the pie. Sprinkle on finely chopped walnuts. Bake until pears are deep golden brown and filling is puffed, cracked, and set in center, 70-80 minutes. Let tart cool in pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Remove pan sides. Serve warm or at room temperature.
