Pear Crostada with Honey, Blue Cheese, and Almonds -- Tyler Florence Fridays

This week forTyler Florence Fridays I made Tyler's Pear Crostada with Honey, Blue Cheese, and Almonds -- yum! I absolutely love the pear and blue cheese combo and add to that honey and almonds, how could you end up with anything other than delicious? This was such a fun recipe to make, it was really easy and I loved the end result. After reading through the recipe I wondered what is the difference between a crostada and a galette, since they seemed like the same thing to me, well, according to the internet they are the same thing, galette is just the French term and crostada is the Italian :) Now you know.



4 pears, halved, cored, but not peeled
3 to 4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
4 ounces good-quality blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup slivered almonds (I used honey roasted sliced almonds)
1 recipe Basic Pie Pastry, chilled 30 minutes, recipe follows
1 egg, beaten with a drizzle of cold water
2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Arrange the pears, cut sides up, on a baking sheet and dot with butter. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pears are just tender. Let cool.





Increase the oven heat to 450 degrees F.

Sprinkle the counter and a rolling pin lightly with flour. Roll the dough out to a 14-inch round, about 1/4-inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfect. Transfer the dough to the back of a lightly floured baking sheet. Slice the pears and arrange them on the dough round by overlapping the slices in a spiral fashion, leaving a 2-inch border all around.








Drizzle with the honey, scatter blue cheese over the top, and sprinkle with the almonds.
Brush the border with the egg wash. Bring the edge of crust over onto the filling, leaving the fruit exposed in center. Gently fold and pinch the dough to seal any cracks.



Brush the crust with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is tender. Slide a knife under the crostata to loosen it from the pan. Then cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.


Basic Pie Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 lemon, zested and finely grated
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and ice water and work that in with your hands. (Or do the whole thing in a food processor, pulsing a couple of times to combine the dry ingredients, then pulsing in the butter, and then the egg.) Check the consistency of the dough by squeezing a small amount together between thumb and forefingers: You want there to be just enough moisture to bind the dough so that it holds together without being too wet or sticky. If it's still crumbly, add a little more ice water, 1 teaspoon at a time. When you get it to the right consistency, shape the dough into a disk and wrap it in plastic. Put it in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.

I halved this recipe, that's why you only see two pears, but really, this was plenty big for I'd say 6-8 small servings since the flavors are so strong. If you are a blue cheese fan you will love this. I completely forgot to add the egg wash and extra sugar sprinkled on the crust before baking. Other changes I made were to drop the baking temperature to 375 -- sorry Tyler, but 450 on anything other than roasted veggies or pizza scares me. I also did not have a lemon for the crust so used 1/4 teaspoon dried lemon zest. I did the crust in the food processor and ended up having to use 6 tablespoons of water total to get the proper consistency. After that it rolled out very easily and was a sinch to work with. All in all, I think this would be a delicious first course or appetizer at a dinner party. It sliced nicely and transfered easily from the serving plate.

This was a fun recipe to try since I knew I loved the ingredient flavors and wanted to see how everything turned out with Tyler's recipe -- two thumbs up :)