Chocolate Pear Tart

Chocolate pear tart

Sigh, midterms. Lithography and my other classes leave me no time to bake...luckily this tart takes no time to whip up. The recipe comes together in the food processor, and takes minimal effort. The hardest step in this recipe was peeling the pears!
It's a perfect recipe for midterm-addled students. I definitely needed the chocolate this week
this isn't a tart in the sense of having a crust or filling, it is more like a fudgy brownie with pears arranged ever so artfully on top. It is an elegant version of brownies, baked in a 9-inch tart pan so it has pretty fluted edges.

This recipe s flourless, it uses almonds instead which makes for a delicate flavour that offsets the delicate floral pears, and mellows the intensity of the chocolate. The tart is meant to have a fudgy texture with a slight grit from the ground almonds. I accidentally overloaded the tart with pear slices despite my better judgement, and it took much longer to bake and didn't look quite like i'd hoped. tasted good, so i forgive it. Although the recipe called for 3 pears, i think one or two would be more than enough.Do not overload this with pears. I blame my midterm stress-addled brain, i needed chocolate and the stress of it all was getting to me. Nonetheless I would make this again, moving forward with the benefit of my experience, and moving on to new baking mishaps in the future. This is why it helps to have some chocolate on hand. Or a recipe for a very simple tart.

Chocolate Pear Tart
makes 1 tart
flourless
time: 1-1/2 hours

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup whole blanched almond
• ¾ cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• 3 firm, ripe Bartlett pears (I really only needed one or two pears depnding on rthe sze)
• ½ lemon (optional I didn’t need it)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush a 9-inch tart pan with a removeable bottom with butter.
2. In a food processor, combine almonds and sugar; process until very finely ground. Add butter, eggs, cocoa, vanilla, salt, and almond extract. Process until combined. Spread mixyure evenly in prepared pan.
3. Pell halve, and core pears; cut lengthwise into ¼ inch thick slices, rubbing them with ½ a lemon to prevent discoloration as you work. Arrange slices on chocolate mixture, slightly overlapping, WITHOUT pressing in. Do not, overload the tart with pears, the batter will take too long to bake, and will not look as pretty.
4. Place pan on a baking sheet; bake until top is puffed and a toothpick inserted in centre of chocolate mixture comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 45-50 minutes. Transfer tart to a wire rack, and cool completely in pan.
5. Remove tart from pan and serve.

adapted from: Martha Stewart Everyday Food Holiday 2007