This tart is such a simple to make but incredibly complex flavoured dessert. The frangipane has such depth to it and with the almond pie crust becomes almost a bit marzipan like in flavour without the overly sweet taste that marzipan can sometimes have. I have wanted to explore this combination for a while but for some reason thought it would be harder to make than it really was. Now I want to explore more options using ground nuts for variations of fragipane.

Total time to make is about 3 hours to allow for the cooling of the crust, and baking etc.

Pear Frangipane Tart loosely adapted from A Beautiful Plate

Equipment needed, 1- 9" springform or tart pan, 1 mixer, or a good whisking hand for the frangipane filling.

Crust

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 (56 g) cup melted butter
1 large farm fresh egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease spring-form pan.
Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, add the butter, egg and vanilla extract, stir to mix. I usually use my hands to mush it together. Place it in bottom of spring-form pan, and using your hands spread it out and work it up the sides to about 2 - 3 cm. Place in oven bake for 10 minutes until the edges start to brown lightly. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Pears (for the filling)

3 pears
Juice of 1 lemon (use zest below in frangipane filling)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 TBSP brown sugar

Peel the pears, divide them in 1/3rds lengthwise, core them, squeeze lemon juice over them, sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon flip them over and repeat. Take each third and starting at the wide end slice them thinly on an angle. Do not take them apart, just slice and leave to "marinate" while making the frangipane filling  

Frangipane filling

1 stick of butter (113 g) softened
1/3 cup (70 g) of sugar
1 cup (115 g) almond flour
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lemon zested - use the lemon juice on the pears

In your mixer, or in a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar, once it's creamy alternate and add an egg with 1/3 cup of almond flour at a time, until it is all combined, add the lemon zest and vanilla extract, beat until it is all light and creamy. If not using straight away you can cover and refrigerate.

When ready to assemble, preheat your oven to 375° F. Spoon the frangipane into the cooled tart shell, smooth out as best as possible. Add the pears - using a flat spatula take the pear and slide them one third sections at a time onto the spatula rounded side up, and place them with the narrow end towards the centre of the tart, slide them apart a bit to make them more interesting looking, repeat placing the pears somewhat close together, I usually end up with one or two of the thirds not fitting. You want a bit of space for the frangipane to rise up around the pear slices. Place in the oven and bake for about 45 – 55 minutes until the frangipane is golden and feels slightly firm to the touch in the centre. If you slide a knife in to the centre, there should be no juiciness there. Please note that all ovens run slightly different temperature, so make sure you check your tart after 45 minutes.

Let cool for 15 minutes, remove the sides of the pan, and then cool fully. Dust with powdered sugar if you want to dress it up a bit. This desert can be made a day ahead as needed. It will keep well on the counter overnight, more than that, please refrigerate.