Walnut tart with lemon burnt honey caramel and pear sorbet

PEAR SORBET

500g pears, peeled and cored
200g water 
220g sugar
20g dextrose  
15g glucose
20g lemon juice
2g stabiliser or locust bean gum 
Pinch of salt 

Mix 20g of sugar with stabiliser and set aside. 

Add pears and water to a blender and blend until a fine purée. Transfer to a heavy bottomed pot with sugar, dextrose, glucose and lemon juice. Warm the liquid to 35C, add stabiliser mix and bring the sorbet mixture up to 82C. Remove from heat, season with a pinch of salt and blend with an immersion blender. Transfer to a bowl and leave overnight in the fridge.

Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Walnut tart with lemon & burnt honey caramel

Makes six 10cm tarts

Pâte à foncer

250g all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
125g butter, diced and slightly softened
50g egg yolk
40g ice cold water

Add flour, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse almond meal. Add the egg yolks and ice water and pulse just until a dough begins to form. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and line six 10cm fluted tart tins (or one 25cm fluted tart tin) with the dough. Refrigerate the pastry for at least an hour.

Line the pastry with tin foil and weigh down with dried beans, blind bake for 8 minutes at 180C, remove tin foil and weight and bake for another 7 minutes. Meanwhile make the filling.

Walnut filling

125g salted butter
100g brown sugar
75g honey
3 Tbsp. heavy cream
Zest of 1 large lemon
1 tsp. salt
360g walnuts

Add honey to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and cook until honey is a deep caramel color, about 4-5 minutes. Add butter and brown sugar and cook over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a rolling boil, remove from heat and stir in heavy cream, lemon zest, salt and walnuts. Immediately pour in the filling to the baked tart shells and bake for 10 minutes, or until the caramel filling is bubbly and gooey. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Garnish with fresh thyme leaves and serve with pear sorbet.