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Pear, Chocolate & Almond Tart

A fabulous tart that is a sure winner. The chocolate at the bottom of the tart is a nice surprise when you slice it up and serve. It is actually a pretty quick and easy tart to put together.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 8 serves

Ingredients
 

  • shortcrust pastry, frozen or made from scratch
  • 60 g almond powder
  • 30 g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 90 g whipping cream
  • 3 pears
  • 1/3 cup melted chocolate

Instructions
 

  • 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.

Notes

  • For a gorgeous looking tart, first slice the pear up into 4 quarters (removing the pips). Then thinly slice it and lay the quarter slightly fanned out in your tart case (as shown).
  • Yes, it's weird that you weigh cream but for this recipe you do. What I do is put a bowl onto the scales and zero it to tare weight after each of the ingredients are added.
  • These tarts can be served in a variety of ways - warm, cold, with vanilla ice cream, or with cream.