Thursday, June 6, 2013

How not to bake a Chocolate Pear Tart


Baking is not one of my strongest points. Funnily enough, some of the things I bake look really pretty, but they usually taste pretty ugly.

Take this pear tart for example. Looks lovely. Doesn't taste so lovely.

And that's certainly not the fault of the recipe. In fact, I based it on a recipe from Kitchen Stories which features many gorgeous Greek recipes, all of which I am sure are well proven. "Based" being the key word here. If I had have followed the recipe to the letter I'm sure this tart would have tasted amazing, even with my bad baking skills.

Unfortunately, my creativity got the better of me and my decision to use olive oil in the shortcrust instead of butter made this tart very challenging indeed! Not to mention, strangely tasting. Oh I know, don't yell at me...


On the other hand, using yoghurt in the filling instead of sour cream as was called for in the original recipe wasn't such a bad idea. I quite like the extra tartness that yoghurt imparts with sweet chocolaty things. But then again, I'm sure sour cream would have given this tart a much more appropriate custardesque filling.


But hey. I'd just bought a massive bag load of pears and really wanted to make something Greek with them. Why I didn't do something classic like honeyed pears or Apithea (stewed pears) escapes me, but lessons are learned this way, and I know I won't be using oil as a substitute for butter in shortcrust again!



For obvious reasons, I am not going to outline my version of the recipe here. I'm sure you'll have much greater success baking this tart if you follow this recipe :)


20 comments:

  1. Oh, Lisa - what a shame! I guess you'd never know if you never tried. At least the gorgeous photos haven't gone to waste. :-)

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    1. Yeah I guess that'll always be the way of a curious mind :) I just wish I had a bit more common sense and I might have realised olive oil didn't stand a chance in this recipe!!

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  2. It looks ever so beautiful and tempting! I'm really sorry it turned out not as expected...

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  3. I'd still eat it! (all of it probably...)

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    1. I actually ate a couple of pieces... well, not the crust - just the filling. I don't even know why I'm calling it a crust. It was really just wet sand...

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  4. aww, you crazy lady. i doubt it tasted ugly. you still rock my socks off with all your amazing creations. xo!

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  5. It looks beautiful. I can't believe that it tasted that badly. I probably would have eaten too!

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    1. Thank you Carrie but not only was it olive oil that I used, it was quite a strong extra virgin olive oil... Trust me. It tasted bad.

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  6. The photos are still beautiful :) I have had many times where the resulting photos looked better than the recipe tasted. It has happened to all of us!

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    1. Thanks Ann. Thank goodness the tart was very photogenic!

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  7. Do not be discouraged Lisa, this has happened to all of us. Next time you'll know what to do. Still looks beautiful!

    From where did you find about Kitchen Stories? Belongs to a friend blogger.

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    1. Oh I know these things happen and I'm really not discouraged by it. I'm actually looking forward to trying this tart again, with butter this time!! :)

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  8. What a shame! Happens to the best of us. I've just blogged about pears and chocolate and I've had a few disasters too. Persistence!

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    1. Hi Ambra. Yes, I will persist! I actually made a lovely apple pie last night - with butter in the crust! - and it turned out wonderful :)

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  9. Regardless of the outcome this pear tart looks amazing and the pics make me want to dive into it.
    Still.......it certainly came across like a great idea. Nevermind.

    Nancy

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  10. Well, at least it looks amazing. If it didn't taste as good as it looked, then it's just another incentive to bake a new one ! :)

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    1. You are so right! And when I make this tart again I know I won't be using olive oil in the crust again!

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