Primary Tart

I’ve made many a pie and galette over the years but never a tart, until this week. The tart aversion has been two-fold, first I lacked the equipment and second, most tarts are unappealing to me. Tart recipes often have a heavy cream and egg filling, both savory and sweet. Like in quiche, this egg suspension is a huge turn-off to me. I don’t like the texture or the flavor and after eating I’m left feeling weighted down. Most of this comes from my tepid relationship to the egg.
There are non-egg tarts out there and this year I decided it was about time to extend my crusty baked goods to include the tart. After hearing numerous hints, SB gave me a set of tart pans for my birthday. I decided my first tart would be pear and I knew just the pear I wanted to use.
Last fall I made three variations of pear freezer jam; unsweetened, honey sweetened and low sugar. The unsweetened is bland, the honey sweetened is a bit strange because I used a dark wildflower honey, the color and flavor of molases, which over powers the pear and the low sugar was by far the winner with a robust pear flavor. I’ve been trying to think of things to do with the dark honey pear jam, since I don’t think it is good on its own.
Thus this tart was born. I used a tart shell recipe from Deborah Madison with some extra almond extract thrown in, filled the shell with a whole jar of pear jelly (about 2 cups) and added one sliced pear on top. Then I topped it all with an almond crumble topping from Deborah’s crisp recipe.
The tart came out beautifully. The honey pear jam turned into this almost carmely, soft center and the tart shell was delicate with just a hint of almond flavor. I will make this pear tart again, as I have more jars of honey pear jam in the freezer.
Meanwhile, I’m already on the hunt for more tart recipes. A couple contenders are the Black Bean Tart with Chili Crust and Zucchini and Ricotta Tart. Any other tart favorites?