Poached Pear Tart with Rum-Flavored Almond Cream

Baking & Desserts

Ingredients

Makes 4 individual 4" Tarts
  • 4 Bosc Pears, peeled
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup slivered almonds
  • ¼ cup flour
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons butter, cubed, cold
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons rum
  • 1 sheet puff pastry
  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 tablespoon powdered sugar

 

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Bring a large pot of water to simmer and add the pears and cinnamon sticks.  Let pears cook in simmering water for 15-17 minutes, or until fork tender.  When pears are done, add 2 cups of sugar to  the water, turn off the heat, and let the pears cool in the juice.
  3. In a food processor, make almond cream by combining the almonds, flour, and ½ cup sugar.  Pulse until almonds are finely ground.  Add the 4 tablespoons of cold butter, and pulse again until mixture resembles coarse meal, and the butter is no bigger than peas.  Add the eggs and rum, and process until the cream becomes smooth.  Remove cream from food processor and refrigerate until needed.
  4. On a floured surface, lay down the puff pastry.  Cut four 4” circles from the puff pastry, using a bowl or other 4” round as a guide.  Place these crusts on a nonstick baking sheet.
  5. Place a heaping tablespoon of the almond cream in the center of each crust.
  6. Slice the pears in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds.  Then, thinly slice them and fan the slices out, overlapping, so that  the slices cover the crust and the almond cream.  You should use 1 pear per tart.
  7. Drizzle each tart with 1 tablespoon of butter and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Bake in preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, or until pears begin to brown.
  8. Remove from the oven and dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Secrets:

    • Add sugar at the end of poaching the pears.  Adding it at the beginning will discolor the fruit.
    • The almond cream can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 3 days.  It can also be baked alone in mini cupcake molds for “Almond cakes”
    • Puff Pastry should be very cold before you begin to cut it, or it will be soft and difficult to work with.
    • After fully assembling the tarts and topping with butter and sugar, you can refrigerate them for up to 2 hours before baking, and they will not brown.
    • This dessert is best served with vanilla ice cream, raspberry coulis, and whipped cream.