Saffron and pears tart

This recipe comes directly from one of the best pastry shops in Piacenza and its province, Pasticceria Mera in Borgonovo Val Tidone. This saffron and pears tart is a simple but effective dessert, and the combination of pears and saffron is a must try! It is the ideal cake to offer to your guests at the end of a lunch or a dinner in these last days of summer… Try it and let me know what you think! The original recipe calls for the making of individual serving tartlets, but I preferred to make a larger tartlet.

INGREDIENTS:

For the sablè shortcrust pastry

300 gr soft butter

200 gr icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (or the seeds of half a vanilla bean)

Grated zest of 1 lemon

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon honey

2 whole eggs

500 grams flour type 0

For the saffron custard

500 gr whole milk

1 gr stigmas of saffron (buy here) or 30 stigmas if you make a hot infusion

100 gr granulated sugar

50 gr rice starch

150 gr egg yolks

For the saffron pears

8 small pears

250 gr water

125 gr sugar

10 stigmas of saffron (buy here)

DIRECTIONS:

For the sablé shortcrust pastry, mix all the ingredients together, form a loaf, wrap it in cling film and let it rest for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. After the standing time, roll out the dough to a thickness of 4mm, line a tart mold, pierce the bottom with a fork and cook in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool.

To prepare the milk and saffron infusion for the custard, you can proceed in two different ways. Cold infusion: soak 1 gr of saffron stigmas in milk, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest overnight in the refrigerator. Hot infusion: bring the milk to a boil, remove from heat, add 30 saffron stigmas and leave to infuse until cool.

For the custard, in a sauce pan mix well the egg yolks, sugar and starch. Reheat the saffron flavored milk and add it to the egg yolk mixture, mix well then bring to a boil, stirring constantly until the cream begins to set. Remove from the heat, cover with cling film (to prevent the crust from forming) and let it cool completely.

For the saffron pears, peel and slice the pears. Put saffron, water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to a boil then add th

e ​​pears. Let it boil until the pears become soft (about 30 minutes). Remove from heat, cover with cling film and leave the pears to infuse for a few hours.

When the preparations have cooled down, you can start assembling the tart. Fill the base with the custard, decorate with the sliced pears (well drained from their cooking liquid) and decorated with some saffron pistils. To obtain a more effective decoration, instead of cutting the pears into slices, you can make pear balls with a digger.

Try this delicious saffron and pears tart and let me know what you think. Thanks again to Roberto and Maurizio Mera for the recipe!

I also remind you that the welcome10 code is still active for online orders, which entitles you to a 10% discount on your first order.