Pear-and-raisin tartlets - country living

8 tartlets

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
⅓ cup Firmly packed light-brown sugar
2 Large eggs
1 tablespoon Water
3 mediums (about 1 1/2 lb) firm Bosc pears, peeled, halved, and cored
1 tablespoon Butter or margarine
½ cup Golden or dark seedless raisins
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1¾ To 2 C unsifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon Baking powder
½ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
½ cup Orange juice
2 tablespoons Finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
1 tablespoon Water

Directions

COOKIE CRUST

FILLING

1. Prepare Cookie Crust: In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Separate 1 egg, adding egg white to the butter mixture and placing egg yolk and water in small bowl.

Cover and refrigerate yolk mixture. Add remaining egg and the vanilla to butter mixture and beat until well mixed.

2. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat 1 C flour, the baking powder, and nutmeg into butter mixture. With spoon or fingertips, work in enough additional flour until cookie dough is firm enough to shape into a ball. Wrap and refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or overnight.

3. Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Cut pears into ½-inch cubes. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add pears and saute just until pears begin to soften. Stir in raisins, orange juice, and ginger; heat to boiling.

4. Meanwhile, in cup, mix cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir cornstarch mixture into pear mixture and reheat to boiling, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove saucepan from heat and cool filling to room temperature. (Filling can be made ahead; cool, cover, and refrigerate.)

5. Heat oven to 375'F. Divide cookie dough into 8 pieces and shape each into a ball. On lightly floured surface, roll each ball to a 5½-inch round. Fit into a 3-inch aluminum-foil tartiet pan. With a knife, trim off excess dough and reserve. Place crust-lined tartlet pans on a jelly-roll pan or baking sheet. Divide Filling among tartlet pans and brush rim of each with some reserved yolk mixture.

6. Gather dough trimmings into a ball and reroll to ⅛-inch thickness. Using 1 ¼-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into hearts. Arrange 4 or 5 cookie hearts, with point of each toward center, around top rim of each tartlet to almost cover Filling. Brush top of each tartlet with yolk mixture.

7. Bake tartiets 20 to 25 minutes or until filling bubbles in the center. Cool to room temperature on wire rack. Store in airtight container.

Nutritional information per tartlet: protein, 5 gram fat: 15 grams; carbohydrate: 49 grams; fiber: grams; sodium: 132 milligrams; cholesterol: 87 milligrams; calories: 341

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