gluten free by nature — casein, soy and entirely almost sugar free…

Yesterday, I was at the market. Pears were everywhere. Which means: fall has officially arrived!!! I bought four 3-pound bags. I couldn’t help myself. I thought I would continue on my preserving streak. That is, if the pears even make it into the freezer before we eat them all.  This morning, I thought it would be really fun for the kids and me to hunker down and make something quintessential autumn: pears and apple together in a tart. Because gluten free tart crusts can be quite temperamental, I decided to draw on my time living in France and make a cross between a standard tart and a clafoutis (pronounce clah-foo-TEA). Clafoutis has a custard-like tendency. But, if you make it using less liquid and eggs, it resembles a tart. They are wonderful. And they can handle the juiciness of these two fall fruits. After this came out of the oven (and I tasted it), I decided that this dessert will hold a special place at Thanksgiving this year…with vanilla ice cream, of course….

For the fruit mixture:

4 small pears, sliced thinly
2 medium apples, sliced thinly
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tblsp honey
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 tblsp gluten free flour (all-purpose flour blend)

For the tart mixture:

4 ounces (just over 2/3 cup packed) ground almonds
3 ounces white rice flour (need help measuring? Go here).
3 ounces sweet rice flour
2 eggs
1/3 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup non-dairy milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Peel pears and apples and slice thinly. Toss in a bowl with honey, spices and flour. Set aside and let flavors meld while you’re preparing the tart mixture.
3. In the bowl of a food processor, grind almonds to a fine powder. Be careful not to grind too much or you end up with almond butter! Remove and set aside.
4. Place eggs, milk, agave in the food processor bowl and pulse two times to combine. Add almonds and flours and pulse a few times more. The batter is a liquid – but it is on the thicker side. Transfer to a baking dish. (I used a piece of stoneware that had a lid).  Layer apple pear mixture over the batter. Using a knife, gently swirl the apples and pears into the batter (just so some pieces of fruit show through in the finished product).
5. Bake 60 minutes covered. Remove lid. Bake an additional 10 minutes (so that the top browns). If you are using something without a lid – you may need to cover the tart with some foil to prevent too much browning on the top…

Tags: clafoutis, galette, rustic tart, stoneware

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 10am and is filed under desserts, holiday, pies and tarts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.