Just who is William Bartlett ?

Why Granny Smith's good friend of course! (In fact she's rather smitten by his firm flesh, bell-shaped bottom)

Little wikipedia says he has many aliases, my favourite is Williams Bon Chrétien, but in Australia he is known as William Bartlett. Bill Bartlett of the Lemon Pipers isn't Granny Smith's friend, despite the fruity name connection.

It is said that this pear has been around since the 1700s and was discovered by a man called Stair, a schoolmaster who then struck a sale and sold the variety to Richard Williams a nurseryman. In 1799, an American bought the variety and cultivated it in the US soil. Years later, (a man with a strange first name I thought...) Enoch Bartlett bought an estate where Williams pear had been planted, propagated the trees and called the pear after himself.

WBs were on special and were $3 cheaper a kilo than ol' nanna Smith so I considered it wise to spend the extra $3 on potato chips instead.



Tarte aux pommes
A Jean-Luc Poujauran recipe, Elle à Table magazine (Jan/Fev 2000 p.51)
Pour 6 personnes

Pâte brisée
200 gr flour
100 gr butter, softened
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1 pinch sugar

6 apples reine des reinettes
50 gr butter
70 gr brown sugar
1 tbsp miel d'acacia
2 tbsp almond powder

Prepare the pâte in a big bowl, mix butter with sugar and a pinch of salt and add to it the milk and egg yolk. Mix with a whisk and incorporate flour to form a ball. Leave to rest in the fridge for approximately 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 210°C. Peel and core the apples, cut into 4s then into 8s. In a pan on high heat, cook the apples in the butter, honey and 50 gr of the brown sugar for 10 minutes then leave to cool.

Roll out the dough onto a tart pan and prick the base with fork several times. Sprinkle with the almond powder and remaining sugar and fill it 'tightly' with the apples. Bake for 10 at 210°C then 40 minutes at 160°C.

Note:
1. I sprinkled the top with almond powder and sugar.
2. Again I used my tartelette pans for this recipe, I have fear rolling out any dough for big tart pans.
3. As mentioned I subbed the apples with pears, I'm not sure what is equivalent to reine des reinettes... I used whatever honey I have in my pantry, not knowing where I could find a purveyor of miel d'acacia in Sydney.
4. The pâte brisée was extremely short! I like! I followed the tips from the magazine to leave the dough in the fridge overnight (it gets better with time apparently...) and to leave slightly ajar the oven door in the middle of cuisson for 2 minutes so that the vapour escape.
5. xo