Pear and Almond Tart – recipe
Pear and Almond Tart a simple but classic dessert for a dinner party or even afternoon tea. It makes an impressive centre-piece served whole at the end of a meal or cut into neat squares on a cake stand.
Ingredients
A roll of shop-bought good-quality shortcrust pastry
175g soft unsalted butter
170g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g ground almonds
40g plain flour
½ tsp almond extract. Use a little more if you like a very almondy flavour
4 ripe pears, peeled, cored and halved
A little butter for greasing the tart tin
250g sugar and 500ml water for the poaching liquid.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas 5.
Pour the water and the sugar for poaching into a saucepan, and heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the prepared pears and simmer until the fruit is just tender. The time for this will vary with the variety and ripeness of the pears. Drain on kitchen paper.
Grease the sides of the baking tin well with butter. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Unroll the shortcrust pastry and line the tin.
Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the beaten eggs a little at a time. Add the dry ingredients and mix well until they are incorporated. Add the almond extract and stir well.
Spoon the almond mixture into the pastry case and smooth the top using a spatula. Arrange the cooled pear halves, cut side down, evenly on the filling. Use only enough pears to leave a gap between them to allow the almond mixture to rise. They will tend to sink into the batter when baking so don’t be tempted to push them down.
Bake the tart for about 35 minutes until the almond filling and pastry are golden brown, but check after about 30 minutes.
Serve Pear and Almond Tart warm with cream or crème fraîche, or at room temperature with a hot cup of tea.
Recipe by Chrissie Walker © 2018
