Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Shortcrust pastry from scratch - you will need to blind bake it. To do this, fill the pastry case with a round of baking paper and add baking beans or rice to weigh it down. Bake for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the paper and beans. Allow to cool slightly before adding any filling.

Frozen pastry - once defrosted, roll out your pastry and place into a tart or pie dish. I used two pastry sheets and kneaded them together then rolling out. I found that one sheet didn't fully cover my entire pie dish which is what I used for this recipe. Once placed into the dish with the filling added, I then trimmed the pastry to 0.5cm higher than the filling before I put it into the oven.

Spread the melted chocolate evenly on the bottom of the pastry.

Slice the pear and evenly put slices on the chocolate. Alternatively you can cut the pear into small cubes.

Whisk together the almond powder with sugar and egg. Add the thickened cream and whisk together until all blended.

Cover the pears with the liquid mixture.

Bake on a middle rack in your oven for 20 minutes if the base is precooked, or about 30 minutes if it isn't. You may need to cover the top with aluminium foil if the top is getting too brown. To test whether it is cooked, gently press your finger into the almond mixture - it should feel a spongy/solid texture rather than spongy/liquid.