Pear Tart in a Cage ~ Tarte aux Poires en Cage
A light dessert in a pinch is poached pears in wine. It's easy, you can start it when you serve the appetizers, it's refreshing in the summer with a scoop of good ice cream or served warm, a cozy way to end a winter meal. If you have a special dinner coming up and want to serve something elegant but not complicated, have been working late every night and have no time, fear not. You can take this poached pear concept one step further and have a visually beautiful dessert that will wow your friends. This one does require a trip to the kitchen gadget store - or a trip to heaven in my case - for a funny little torture device looking thing called a lattice cutter. Roll this across your pastry dough, pull apart gently et voila...lattice!
A docker for poking holes in puff pastry and a lattice slicer for making lattice designs
This recipe calls for pears, frangipane, and puff pastry. That's it, c'est tout! Puff pastry is not for the faint of heart and usually takes two days to make. I'll save that for Shuna, the resident pastry chef extraordinaire, as only she can describe. Suffice to say I am tres (very) lazy so I am more than happy to buy pre-made puff pastry (I know you are cringing Shuna!) for a quick last minute dessert or quiche. Anything to make life easier these days...