Pear and almond tart

Pears and almonds go so well together. This dessert is so yummy it lasted less than 2 hours.

I’ve based this on a recipe from Michel Roux Jr. making some changes to keep it non-dairy.

I will try a vegan version without the eggs one day but I wanted to do it this way first so I knew what to expect from the real deal before I experimented with egg-free versions.

I served it with some squirty soya cream from a can and some of the Rhubarb in grenadine syrup I made the other day. So so so goooood.

Serves: 10

Ingredients

For the pears and pastry

4 pears
300ml water
1 vanilla pod
1 tsp ground cinnamon
250g caster sugar
1 packet of ready made sweet shortcrust pastry
- Most of these are non-dairy but do check

For the almond cream batter

125g non-dairy margarine
125g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
3 eggs
2 tbsp rum
- I used fig, honey and cinnamon rum liqueur

Method

Peel the pears, cut in half and remove the cores.
Put the water, split vanilla pod, cinnamon and 250g sugar in a pan. bring to the boil ensuring the sugar is dissolved.
Add the pears, turn the heat down and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes. Then remove from the heat and drain away the liquid, leave to cool.
Whilst the pears are poaching, pre-heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan / 400°F / gas mark 6).
Put the margarine and 125g of sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
Whisk in the ground almonds then add the eggs in one at a time and whisk altogether. Finally, whisk in the rum.
Line a greased flan dish with the pastry and prick the bottom with a fork. Line this with greaseproof paper, fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- I used a cake tin for mine as I haven’t got a flan dish at the moment.
- If you haven’t got baking beans then used dried beans like butter beans or black turtle. It’s just something to keep the pastry from rising in the oven.
Remove the baking beans and paper then back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and pour in the almond cream batter mix, make sure it is evenly spread.
- Keep the oven on though.
Slice each of the pear halves lengthwise into quarters or thirds, depending on their size.
Arrange them on top of the flan mixture in a circular fashion with the pointed ends in the centre.
Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until browned and set.