Baking with... Pears!

Apples... yes. Pineapple... yeah. Cranberries... yup! Bananas... most definitely, YES! But pears? Really? No, I've never baked with pears till just a couple of months ago. I had originally plucked a pear tart recipe from one of my favorite food sites, Chowhound... hmmm... maybe a couple of years ago now. If you are a frequenter of that site, I'm sure you've run into the Sir Gawain cake vs. the galleygirl tart debate. Both recipes are well received by the general Chowhound community, both consist of ingredients I normally have in the house (except perhaps the fruit), and both seemed pretty simple to make, so I saved both, but only just got around to baking galleygirl's friend's Laurie's Pear Tart, and I've already garnered a mass of compliments! Not to mention, I love it too! The key, as noted by galleygirl, is to underbake it, that way the center is sort of custardy around the sweet pear slices. When fully cooked, the batter bakes up into a rich butter cake, which, while still yummy, is less special.

The Recipe verbatim from Chowhound:

Laurie's Pear Tart

3 or 4 ripe juicy pears. (doesn't matter what kind, juicy and ripe are KEY!)
Peel, core, and cut into sixths or eighths

Cream 1 stick butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 teasoon vanilla

Add
2 eggs, one at a time...

Combine
1 c. flour
1 teasoon baking powder
1/2 t. salt...

Add to butter mixture.

Spray an 8" (important) spring form pan with Pam. Spread the batter in it. Now, in a pinwheel pattern, press the slices of pear, peeled side up, into the batter. Cram in as many as you can; since the batter rises and covers the pears, there's no points given for style here(g). The more pears, the moister the cake will be. Sprinkle with handful of sugar before baking. Bake at 350 degrees til a skewer comes out clean, about an hour(Start checking at 40 minutes!). If you have any doubts, UNDERBAKE. This is a whole different animal if it dries out. Then it's just a cake; correctly done, you'll love it. It's just one of those recipes that is greater than the sum of it's parts. really. Ask my Dad. ;)

Vivian's Notes:
1) Personally, I could only fit 1-1/2 pears into my 8 inch round pan.
2) Another Chowhound noted that she used 1.5 times the batter for her 9 inch pan - I tried this, but it was a touch too much batter for my short 9 inch round cake pan.
3) It was still wonderfully moist and yummy days after baking.