Roxann's La Bête Noir and Pear Tart

 Our long-time family friend Roxann once owned a production bakery (selling to hotels and restaurant clients) in the 1980s. While a high percent of the bakery's sales was comprised of French bread, she made a few (tremendous) desserts. I've made both of these a number of times:

La Bête Noir torte (The Black Beast)

Use high-quality chocolate

8 oz unsweetened chocolate

4 oz semisweet chocolate

8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cubed in small pieces

5 eggs, room temperature

1 1/3 c sugar, divided

1/3 c water

Preheat oven to 375. Spray and flour a 9" round cake pan, and put a parchment circle in the bottom.

Melt both chocolates together slowly over very low heat, or in microwave. Once melted, add butter off heat and stir to melt/combine.

Beat eggs with 1/3 c sugar until tripled in volume.

Bring 1 c sugar and 1/3 c water to a complete boil in a saucepan and boil just until sugar is dissolved, no longer. Pour this hot syrup over the chocolate/butter mixture and stir until smooth and shiny. Gently fold in beaten egg mixture, pour batter into prepared pan. Carefully place this pan into a larger pan with enough water in it to come up about 1/2" on the sides. Bake 28-33 minutes- center will still be soft. Cool, then refrigerate until quite firm. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto a platter. Cover and refrigerate (or freezes well) until serving.

Pear Tart

1 buttery tart crust, prepared in a 9" tart pan with removable bottom, parbaked until very slightly golden (about 10 min)

3/4 c sugar

1/3 c flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

6 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract (go almond here if you can)

3-4 ripe pears, depending on their size, preferably anjou or bosc

Preheat oven to 350. Peel pears and cut them in half lengthwise, removing core. Squeeze or rub a little lemon juice on the surfaces. Slice them in 1/4"-3/8" slices crosswise and fan out in the crust with the wider end of the pears near the edges of the pan. For filling, mix dry ingredients, then whisk in eggs, then butter and extract. Pour the filling over the fanned pears and bake about 35 minutes, or until tart is crusted and browned.