Pear Tart with Goat Cheese and Port

To me, this dessert embodies every dessert direction with exception to chocolate: fruit, pastry, cheese, dessert wine. It seemed like a good choice for a dinner party, covering all bases.

Pear Tart with Goat Cheese and Port

Ingredients

All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 piece store-bought frozen puff pastry, defrosted according to package directions
1/4 cup currants
1 1/2 cups ruby port
1 (4-ounce) log mild goat cheese
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 firm-ripe pears, cored and sliced as thinly as possible
2 tablespoons apricot jam
Splash water
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll the puff pastry sheet to a thickness of between 1/4 and 1/8-inch. Using a plate or other round template as your guide, cut the pastry to a 12-inch circle. Refrigerate while you prepare the toppings.

Combine the currants and port in a small nonreactive bowl and set aside to allow the currants to plump for at least 20 minutes.

In a food processor, or using a hand mixer, combine the goat cheese with the confectioners' sugar and the vanilla and mix until smooth. Drain the currants from the port and in a small saucepan reduce the port to about 1/4 cup. Reserve the port reduction for serving.

Place the puff pastry circle onto the lined baking sheet and spread the goat cheese mixture over the puff pastry, leaving about a 1-inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the currants over the goat cheese; arrange the pear slices evenly over the goat cheese, overlapping the slices to form a fanned out pattern. Combine the apricot jam with a small amount of water; in a small saucepan or in the microwave, melt the jam. Brush the tart with the apricot jam and sprinkle with the dark brown sugar.

Bake the tart until pastry is golden brown on the bottom and sides, usually 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the tart from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool. Serve the tart at room temperature, drizzled with some of the port reduction.

I didn't quite realize how much of a pain cutting and arranging the pear slices would be. However, I think I did a decent job of making them look pretty - but it took a long time and careful selection of pear slices. When it went into the oven, I was pretty excited for the final product, I had done everything according to the recipe and it looked nice!

Unfortunately, the final product was a bit disappointing. The skin on the pears seemed too tough, I would have peeled them. But that wasn't the worst part...the cheese got a bit crumbly!!! The flavor was so good but it just wasn't right.

Oh well.

It was still impressive-ish.

The best part of making this dessert was the return to childhood that I had during the process. Whenever my Mom would make a pie with a homemade pie crust, she would make a "crusty" with the leftover dough. A "crusty" was basically rolled out dough spread with some butter, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar, roll it up like a cigar in a crescent moon shape, and bake it until lightly golden. Though I was using puff pastry, I did the same with my leftover scraps, and to me, this was the most satisfying part of the whole dessert!