This french pear and almond tart recipe, or Frangipane tart, is made an with easy pastry recipe. It's a great dinner party dessert with rich flavours of almond, pear and a lovely flaky crust.
Quick Pastry
Ingredients
250g plain flour
90g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
180g Western Star Chef’s choice Butter, cold and diced
1 egg yolk, lightly whisked with 3 tbsp water
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C
Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter into the base of a food processor and blitz until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg and blitz until mixture comes together and forms a dough. Shape into a disc, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Once chilled, roll dough into a circle about 3-5mm thick. Lay over a 23cm fluted tart tin with a removable base. Press gently to fit tart tin. Trim any excess pastry. Refrigerate for a further 30 minutes. Once chilled bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until slightly golden. Set aside to cool and turn down the heat of the oven to 180°C
Frangipane
Ingredients
230g flaked almonds
2 tbsp plain flour
180g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp extra to sprinkle
230g Western Star Chef’s Choice Butter, softened
4 eggs
2 beurre bosc pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 5mm slices lengthways
Western Star Thickened Cream, whipped to serve
Method
Meanwhile to make filling place the almonds, flour and sugar into the food processor and blitz until it resembles a powder. Add butter and blitz again until combined. Add the eggs and process for 2 minutes until creamy
Transfer mixture into tart shell and smooth over with a spatula. Arrange the pear on top of frangipane filling. Sprinkle over extra caster sugar
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until firm and golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from the tart tin. Serve alongside freshly whipped cream
Tips & Hints
Try using other fruits instead of pear such as apple, nectarine and peach.
Serve with extra thickened cream, whipped and a generous handful of seasonal berries.
