Scraps from here and there

An avid baker would most likely have leftovers scraps from all over the place. You know what I'm talking about...those scraps of extra dough, the bits of chopped nuts and chocolates, the wee portion of creams or frangipanes or buttercreams, etc etc. That is when the baker's best friend would be, the freezer. The bigger the better I say, to store not only the leftovers, but also prepared goods that can be frozen (think muffins, homemade cookie doughs, freshly churned ice-creams).

I had leftover poached pears in the week I made the Poire D'Eve, I was thinking what should I do with them. So I opened up my freezer, poked around a bit for inspiration, and came up with my own concoction. I used leftover almond tart dough, I made up a fresh batch of almond frangipane (just because the only other frangipane in the fridge was pistachio, and I have doubts that it will mesh with the flavours I had in mind), topped it with sliced poached pears and chopped up some leftover pistachios for some colour. There, I had a dessert ready.

 Almond frangipane poached pears tart

Aromatic spices

I had enough dough and pears to make about five mini tarts. For three of them, I spread the almond frangipane on the prebaked tart shells, add the poached pears and sprinkled chopped pistachios. For the remaining two, I grated a layer of chocolate on the tart shells, and repeat the above, replacing chopped pistachios with more grated chocolate.

Chocolate almond poached pears tarts; Almond poached pears tarts

The tarts were nothing spectacular, it was just an simple sweet treat using leftovers. I think freezing dough affects the taste and texture of the tart shells somehow. Either that, or because this dough was slightly different, using melted butter, and that's why I felt that the frozen dough produced a tad drier taste when baked, compared to the crispier nicer texture of freshly made tart dough. I still have some leftover chocolate dough in the freezer. I'm gonna be making a lemon cake this weekend, so I'll be making extra lemon curd, so I can make another chocolate-lemon combination using the chocolate dough and excess curd. Can't wait!