Poached pear tart.

Poached pear tart for Tuesday. It is a rather troublesome pastry because it takes two days to prepare it. But the process of making it is quite simple to carry out. So, haha, I shouldn't complain. :D This flat little thing consist of a short pastry crust, pastry cream, dacquoise base ( A dacquoise is a dessert cake made with layers of nut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream. -wikipedia) and ofcourse, pear poached in red wine. 4 different parts put together to give a lovely tart. It is quite a nice tart, sweet and full of flavour, thanks to the red wine.

Here, Chef Karin put pistachio nuts and almond nuts on the rim of the tart so as to be different from others. The contrasting colours of the pears and nuts do give a pleasing effect.

Hohoho, this is my tart. I was so unfocused that day. I spoilt my pastry cream by forgeting to add cornflour to it and as a result I stayed too long on the fire. Burnt my cream. haha. Then the bring-over effect starts. Because I wasted too much time on my pastry cream, I didn't get to make the dacquoise base myself (my bench mates did it for me). Then I think I lost my nerves somewhere, and lost that self-confidence completely. I over-worked my short pastry dough (my pastry dough was very fine at the beginning!) following all my other friends. I knew I shouldn't work it too much, but everyone was doing the same. haha, so I guess I succumbed to peer pressure. Lesson learnt: always trust your instinct. Anyway, my pear tart turned out fine. Pretty even. heehee. :D