Pear Granola Tart

As the delicious Kale Turkey soup was in the pot simmering, mom and I needed something to do. We are, after all, Fernandes women. We ALWAYS need to do something. So we plotted. A dessert- made with pear. We had no flour or sugar in the house. How does mom live in a house without sugar?!?! The only "sweet" things in the house were Sweet'N Low (gross) and granola- the good kind from Earth Fare. I then remembered the brown sugar in my car. My summer was spent making a lot of cakes in various states so yes... I travel with several kinds of brown sugar. We wanted to make something different- clearly, with the lack of any baking item in the house. We decided to use the Camembert that we also bought from Earth Fare, granola, and pears. Layer of granola on the bottom to act as a "crust:, a layer of the Camembert over the granola, topped with sliced pear, drizzled with brown sugar and vanilla fig balsamic vinegar for a little bit of bite. We were crossing our fingers that this would work. And ohh....it did. Ooozy sweetness from the brown sugar and balsamic over the warmed pear, over this outrageously sticky granola mix... we could not stop at one bite.

It looks like a mess. I know. But- I'd make it again in a heart beat and try to clean it up a bit.

Mom and I struggled naming this dish. Pear crumble? Pear tart? Pear bake? Granola Pear? This led to a serious Wikipedia session on all baked dishes... how does one go about naming recipes?!? The research seriously threw my blogging off course.

So am back on track now- whatever this dish is (settled on the name of Pear Granola Tart for now)- here's the recipe:

3 pears, peeled and sliced
1/2 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup of granola
2 tbsp of light brown sugar
6 slices of Camembert cheese, sliced thinly

Serves: 4 (although mom and I did just fine eating it ENTIRE thing)

Stir the granola and butter in a bowl till granola is softened. Put the granola mix on the bottom of a 6 inch round pan. We had just enough to put a layer of the mix on the bottom of the pan.
                                                 

Place the Camembert slices in the one layer over the granola. Place the slices of pears over the Camembert  overlapping the slices. Drizzle the vanilla- fig balsamic vinegar generously over the pears.

If you don't have vanilla fig balsamic vinegar lying around, you can make it! I'm a fan of reducing balsamic vinegar with different spices into syrups- recipe below.

Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, add 1 tbsp of brown sugar and a little butter to make a brown sugar sauce. Once it the sugar has melted all the way, pour over the pears.
Place in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Serve hot! the granola is softened by the butter and cheese into a deliciously gooey mix.

Vanilla- fig balsamic vinegar recipe:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 cup chopped dried figs
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise.
In a small pot, combine vinegar and water and bring to a boil. Add figs, vanilla bean and reduce heat to simmer. Stew figs in sauce until they are soft and sauce is thick and syrupy, about 10-12 minutes. Strain mixture, removing figs and vanilla bean.