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.
180g Western Star Chef’s choice Butter, cold and diced
1 egg yolk, lightly whisked with 3 tbsp water
Frangipane
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
Quick Pastry
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
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
