Chocolate Pear Tart

During my day of baking, I decided I wanted to have a little chocolate and fruit in my life, so I made a fancy tart. It sat in the fridge for until dinner the next day and still looked (and tasted) great. I made a 9 inch and a 5 inch, but would have made 2 9 inch tarts if I had the pans for it, because the crusts were a bit thicker than I wanted with the smaller second tart.

Chocolate Pear Tart
Makes 2 tarts in 9 inch pans
Prep time: 3 hours (most of it waiting for things to chill in the fridge)
Cook time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:
- 8 Tbs (1 stick) butter
- 3 Tbs evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour (plus a couple pinches to dust pans)
- 2 ripe green pears (bartlett or anjou work well)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or however much chocolate you want)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened greek yogurt (I used Fage 0%)

Tools:
- 2 tart or pie pans, 9 inches
- 1 large bowl
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 pastry cutter (or two knives)
- 1 fork
- 1 spreading utensil that won't melt (small silicone spatula or butter knife work fine)
- 1 small microwave safe bowl
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 veggie peeler (optional, can use the sharp knife in place)
- 1 cutting board
- 1 oven
- 1 refrigerator
- 1 microwave
- 1 timer

Directions:

Crust:
1. In large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and salt.
2. Chill butter mixture and flour in the fridge for 30 mins.
3. Add flour to butter mixture and cut the butter into the flour. At the side is a video on how to do it with a pastry cutter and another video on how to do it with two knives. You can also use your hands to smear the butter and flour together to get a really flakey crust.
4. Put a little flour in each pan and spread it around to give it a light dusting (this helps with release)
5. Put half of the dough in one pan and the other half in the other. Using your hands, press the dough into the pan so that it is an even thickness and the crust goes up the sides.
6. Place the unbaked crusts in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Use a fork to poke holes in the crust so that it won't bubble (it will be difficult with the dough cold, so be careful).
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Filling:
10. Melt the chocolate in the microwave on the lowest power setting, stirring every 15 seconds to get everything to melt evenly and prevent scorching. (Yeah, it's a pain, but chocolate is finicky and is ruined when it's burned). Optionally, use a double boiler to melt chocolate.
11. Spread melted chocolate in the bottom of the tart crust and up the sides. Try to get it even and smooth.
12. Chill chocolate for 30 minutes in the fridge until hard.
13. While waiting, cut pears into quarters, cut away the cores, and use the peeler to make thin slices of pear (leave on the skin because it's pretty). Alternately, use your sharp knife to very carefully cut thin slices of pear, take your time with this and keep all of your fingers.
14. Once chocolate is solid, apply a layer of yogurt over the chocolate, but leave the sides exposed.
15. Layer pear slices on top of yogurt in a circle with the small ends facing the center and the skins forming rays from the center (this looks best if the pears slices are all the same size. Optionally, layer pear slices starting at the outside and working inwards with the skins facing out (this works better if the pear slices are all different sizes so the big ones are at the outside and the little ones at the inside).
16. Serve tarte at room temperature or else the chocolate makes it difficult to cut the tart.

If not intending to serve immediately, cover with plastic wrap put tightly over the fruit and store in the fridge for 1 to 1.5 days (the pears will start to look bad after that). Remove from fridge 1 hour prior to serving to allow tart to come to room temp. The crust can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge (baked or unbaked) for up to a week or frozen for up to 6 months.