Holidaze Sweets
having the leisure to just make dessert
instead of a whole holiday dinner,
I took my time figuring out what to do
had a lovely box of pears
I could not eat before they spoiled,
decided to do a pear/almond tart
the internet is a wonderful and distracting place
I found many variations on this theme
deciding to take the best of several recipes
I poached the pears in marsala wine
with cloves and cinnamon
instead of just sugar water
made the almond filling
rather than take short cuts
OK I took one short cut
I didn’t grind my own almond flour
butter, eggs and almond flour
with a bit of almond extract
resulting in a moist almond custard
cookie like filling
could have use marzipan and eggs
but perhaps too sweet with the pears
great under apples
next my favorite short crust with butter
flour, powdered sugar, and an egg
an egg yolk should be added
to the crust, but I just use
the whole egg
what can you do with just one egg white?
in the spirit of the most frequently repeated recipes
added almond flour to the crust
to glaze or not to glaze
that was the question
the suggested glaze was apricot jam
but I had all this nice poaching water
with pear syrup and spiced marsala
added a bit of the jam, more wine
and more sugar
reduced the mixture
made a small tasting sample
might give up dinner
and eat tarts instead
©2010 Sandy Vrooman
