Wicked Wednesdays

"Oh, for the love of food!"

If you work a 9-5 job, there's a 95% chance that you hate Mondays. It's a fact. However, I prefer Mondays to Tuesdays. Think about it: on Monday you are still feeling the benefits of a weekend full of brunch, lie ins and a lazy read of the Sunday papers. But then Tuesday and Wednesday (aka Humpday) strike. You know that the weekend is truly over and there is still such a long time until 5pm on Friday evening, at which time nothing stands between yourself and a bottle of wine/beer/gin. So what is the answer? Food glorious food of course! 

Whilst watching Spring Kitchen on BBC2, Lorraine Pascal wooed me with her delectable desserts, and so I decided to adapt the recipe and make a boozy version (if it's in food it doesn't count, right?) 

PEAR AND ALMOND AMARETTO TART

You will need...

For the tart
375g pack of ready-rolled dessert shortcrust pastry
100g soft butter
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
3 tbsp plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting
1 medium egg
1 tbsp amaretto liqueur
2 tins of pear halves

To Serve
Pot of single or double cream, depending on your preferences
3 tbsp amaretto
Few drops of vanilla essence

1. To make the frangipan (almond filling), first beat/cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Then slowly add the flour and almonds, and then the amaretto and egg and beat until smooth and soft, but obviously there may be some lumps here and there with the almonds. 

2. Place the shortcrust pastry into a tart tin or dish. Don't feel guilty about buying ready made pastry, this is meant to be as quick and easy as possible. 

3. Spoon the frangipan into the pastry case and level it over. 

4. Then place the pear halves on top like this... 

5. Put it in the oven at 180c or Gas Mark 4, for around 45 minutes, or until it looks golden and delicious. It does look a little beige in colour, so I suggest serving with strawberries and raspberries to brighten it up.

6. If you have any leftover pears and pastry, you could make these cute little tarts like we did, using raspberry jam (that was flavoured with whisky). Cook until the pastry is crisp and the jam is bubbling. 

7. To make the cream topping, simply whisk some single or double cream and add some amaretto and vanilla essence to your taste. 

I hope this recipe is easy to follow. If you do one thing over the next few days, make these tarts - they are truly scrumptious!

Yaasica Lucia XXX