Pear and Ginger Brown-Butter Tart

DIRECTIONS

• Ginger Brown-Butter: Slice the unpeeled ginger root into 1/4 inch rounds.
• set aside.
• Sift flour and ground ginger.
• Set aside.
• Whisk together the eggs and sugar until combined.
• Beat in flour and ground ginger.
• set aside.
• In a small saucepan, heat butter with vanilla bean and ginger root over high heat until brown and foamy.
• Continue heating until bubbles subside and the butter is dark brown and smoking.
• Whisking continuously, pour hot butter in a steady stream into the egg mixture.
• Combine well.
• Strain and discard vanilla bean and ginger root.
• The ginger brown-butter can be made to this point and refrigerated for a week.
• Warm to room temperature before using.
• Poaching the Pears: Combine all ingeredients except pears in a stainless steel saucepan.
• Peel, halve and core pears and drop immediately into liquid.
• Place a clean kitchen towel over the pears on the surface of the liquid, to keep them submerged.
• Bring to a boil and reduce heat to just below a simmer until the pears can be easily pierced with a wooden skewer.
• Spread pears on a parchment lined sheetpan and refrigerate until cool.
• These will keep covered for a couple of days.
• Reserve 1 cup of the poaching liquid.
• Assembling The Tart: Preheat oven to 350.
• Line a 10-inch tart ring with sweet tart dough.
• Pour or pipe ginger brown butter into the pastry shell, filling to 1/2 inch of the top.
• Place pears, cut side down on a cutting board and cut them crosswise into 1/8 inch slices.
• Keep the sliced pear halves in tact.
• Press slightly to shingle the slices and slightly elongate their shape.
• Slip a thin offset spatula under each of the sliced pear halves and place on top of the brown butter, stem end toward the center.
• Arrange pear halves around the tart like the spokes of a wheel.
• If there is room in the center add another pear half or additional slices.
• You should have approximately 7 halves around the outside and one half in the middle.
• This will depend largely on the size of the pears.
• Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until well browned.
• Cool.
• Just before serving, boil the reserved poaching liquid until it reduces to 1/4 cup.
• It will be very thick.
• With a pastry brush, paint a thin layer of glaze over the pears.
• Remove tart from the tart ring and slice.
• Serve with vanilla or ginger ice cream.