I made this tart for dessert yesterday for a family dinner and it was really lovely. It is not too sweet and has quite a distinctive almond taste which goes very well with the pears. The recipe was originally inspired by a recipe posted by Yuppiechef, but I changed it a bit to make it dairy-free.
Ingredients for the base:
2 cups of almond flour (or a mixture of almond and macadamia flour)1 egg
1/4 teaspoon almond essence
a pinch of salt
30ml sugar of your choice
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
30ml coconut oil
Ingredients for the filling:
1 large tin of pear halves
1/2 tin of coconut cream (approximately 250ml)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5 Spice (mixture of cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns)
a pinch of salt
45 ml sugar of your choice
1 cup almond flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
In a food processor, mix all of the base ingredients together until a soft dough ball forms and the dough comes away easily from the sides of the mixing bowl.
Press the dough mixture firmly into a large pie plate and smooth the base out with a spoon. Ensure that the dough comes up the sides of the dish too. Bake the base for 8 to 10 minutes at 180'C.
While the base is baking, make the filling. In the food processor, mix all of the filling ingredients except for the tinned pears. Blend until smooth.
The base should be lightly golden brown when cooked.
Arrange the pears in the base.
Then, pour the filling mixture over the pears. They should be nearly covered.
Return the pie to the oven at 180'C and bake for another 25 minutes, until the filling has set and is fairly firm if you wiggle the pie dish.
Serve slightly warm with a dusting of icing sugar, a drizzle of coconut cream, flaked almonds and some mint leaves.
