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.

Chocolate Chip Orange Blossom Clove Cookies

Today I got a baking need and so I thought I would share what I made with you lovely people. Due to a lack of vanilla extract, I had to find some other fragrant potion to make my cookies have a little pizzaz, so I kicked them up a notch by adding ground clove and orange blossom water. These cookies would be great to make with kids because everything is mixed at room temp in bowls and then put in the oven, so they get to work on their math skills and hand-eye coordination. Enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Orange Blossom Clove Cookies
Makes 60 cookies (if you use a perfect Tbs ball for each one and don't eat any dough, but when does that ever happen?)
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 9-11 minutes per batch
Level: Easy

Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbs honey
- 1 Tbs orange blossom water
- 2 eggs
- 4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate roughly chopped (I used the whole ar of baking chocolate)

Tools:
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 wooden spoon
- measuring cups
- measuring spoons
- 1 cookie sheet (though more would be quicker)
- 1 oven
- a timer

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cloves. Set aside.
3. In a medium sized bowl, cream together butter, sugars, honey, and orange blossom water with a sturdy spoon (wooden spoons work best for this because butter is stubborn and the whole thing needs to be lump free).
4. To the butter mixture add eggs and mix until combined (be careful to not slosh any of the egg out of the bowl because at first it won't want to mix).
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet a bit at a time, mixing in between each addition.
6. Once the dry and wet have all been combined, add the chocolate and stir it around until the chocolate is evenly distributed.
7. Use a tablespoon (or just a regular spoon you might eat cereal with) and scoop dollops of dough onto the cookie sheet approximately every 1.5 to 2 inches apart, so that you get individual cookies instead of one large cookie.
8. Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden brown (cooking time will vary depending on altitude, humidity, your stove, and how crispy you like your cookies, so keep an eye on those puppies).
9. Transfer to a plate and wait until cookies are no longer hot like lava before consuming. The waiting will be the most difficult part.

Store any uneaten cookies in a ziplock baggie or tupperware (or cookie jar) on the counter overnight, in the fridge for up to a week, or the freezer for up to 2 months. Uncooked dough can be kept in the freezer for up to 6 months or fridge for up to a week. Raw eggs can cause food poisoning, but cookie dough is amazing, so eat raw cookie dough at your own risk because we both know that it's well worth it.