pear tart with fig butter

On a recent trip to Trader Joe's, the employees were giving out samples of their Fig Butter. (Essentially fig jam.) Everyone was raving about it, and I happened to be craving Fig Newtons at the time, so I grabbed a jar of fig butter.

But when I brought it home, it just sat in the fridge. It doesn't really go with peanut butter, and I'm not usually one to have just toast with jam. I did, though, have just toast with fig butter and, in fact, toast with peanut butter and fig butter. Hubs and I had some with a cheese plate after the kids were in bed one night. (Cheese, wine and a movie—it's our little version of a date at home.)

Did you know that fig jam goes well with cheese? You can often find it in the “fancy cheese” section of most grocery stores.

So I had half a jar left. What to do. . . what to do. . . I envisioned a rustic tart, with crust folded over the edges. 

Just fig? 

Hmm. . . no.  

Pear. 

Perfect.

One crust, in a shallow pan or pie plate.
Spread some fig jam on it.
Slice a few pears. Arrange them neatly. (Or not.)
Heat the rest of the jam and drizzle it on top of the pears.
Sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar for good measure.
Fold over the crust and bake.

(There were one-crust-pie baking directions on my crust box. I don't make pie crust. Probably 375°ish for 30 minutes or so? Until the crust is golden brown.)

Best served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream, of course.

Oh, it was delicious.

So easy, and so pretty, this could be my new fail-proof entertaining dessert.