Pear and Cranberry Tart

Originally, this was going to be just pear. And a crostata. Then it was going to be a pear and cranberry crostata. But you guys know how I am, so thing awry after thing awry resulted in a tart instead. I really did not use enough pear here, so my quantities will reflect what you should do rather than what I did do. We all like a filled tart shell here, yeah?

Here’s what you’ll need

1 pie crust for a 9" pie (no one cares or will know if you bought pie crust unless you tell them)
2 tablespoons corn starch
5 large pears, cored and cut into thin slices
1 cup cranberries, whole or chopped (as you prefer)
3/4 cup vanilla sugar, divided (you can also just use regular sugar)

2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 teaspoon water

Here’s what you’ll do

Preheat oven to 400F. Line tart (or pie!) pan with prepared crust. Dust it with the cornstarch. Arrange some of the pear slices in a spiral (or however you want to), then dust with some of the sugar. Top with some of the cranberries, concentrating the cranberries around the edges (but not exempting the middle from them). Use any malformed or small slices of pear to fill in the gaps around the cranberries at the edges (so the top layer will stand up straight, so to speak). Repeat as before, with the pears and cranberries, until you’ve used up all your fruits and sugar. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Heat the jam and water in a small saucepan over low or medium heat until it's relatively thin. Let it cool thoroughly, then brush jam mixture all over the tart. You’ll want to let that set a bit before serving. I don’t know how many people this tart really serves, because sometimes it’s only one person and other times I can squeak 8 servings out of it. We’ll go 8 since it can be done.