Last week I saw a pretty and colorful bag of pears at Trader Joe’s. The bag read “Rainbow Pears”. It was basically a mix of different kinds of small pears, including Red D’Anjou, Green D’Anjou, and Bosc. So pretty! I’m a total sucker for nice packaging and clever marketing, and, of course, I love pears. Needless to say, I drove off the Trader Joe’s parking lot with those pears in my grocery bag and the culinary part of my brain already in motion.

Pear and Chocolate. Of course! Such a glorious pairing. I’m not sure if it belongs to any particular cuisine (French, peut-être?), but it sure is a common combination in Italian desserts. The most common dessert that features these two delicious ingredients is Torta di Pere e Cioccolato, a chocolate cake with pieces of pears inside. It’s a really satisfying cake, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I wanted something that provided a variety of textures and would let me play a little more in the kitchen. I love tarts exactly for this reason and they are very, very popular in my family. So, after a bit of research and a lot of notes, I finally opted for a tart, filled with frangipane and topped with pear halves.

Frangipane is a common French filling for tarts, but as the names suggests, it’s originally from Italy. It’s a rich cream made of butter, sugar, eggs, and ground almonds. For my tart, I specifically used a chocolate frangipane recipe from one of the finest Italian pastry chefs, Luca Montersino. Both my mother and I have a “culinary crush” on him and together we often watched his cooking show on Italian TV. Not only he is great at what he does, he is also a gifted teacher and always provides the scientific explanations behind any of his creations.

So here’s my tart! I love how the pears, kept in their natural shape, provide a nice, rustic look that balances out the rest. This is a perfect dessert for chocolate lovers like me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

CHOCOLATE FRANGIPANE PEAR TART
Servings: 8 | Prep/Resting time: 1 hour and 20 min| Cook time: 40 min

NOTE: Conversions are approximate. I highly recommend the use of a digital scale and measure all ingredients in grams. It’s just easier and more precise!

INGREDIENTS
Chocolate Short Pastry Dough
150 g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
125 g (1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp) sugar
a pinch of salt
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
few drops of vanilla extract
250 g (2 cups) all purpose flour
15 g (2 Tbsp + 1 tsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
(optional) 1.5 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder

Chocolate Frangipane Filling (slightly adapted from Chef Luca Montersino’s recipe)
95 g (3.35 oz) blanched almonds
90 g (3.17 oz) brown sugar
95 g (3.35 oz) butter
105 g (3.7 oz) eggs
28 g (3 tbsp) rice flour
7 g (2 tsp) corn starch
10 g (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp) unsweetened cocoa powder
25 g (0.9 oz) amaretti cookies

2 pears
confectioners sugar

INSTRUCTIONS
[Chocolate Short Pastry dough/Crust]
1. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar and then add in a pinch of salt, the egg, the egg yolk, and a few drops of vanilla.
2. On a clean surface, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and add to the butter mixture. Knead briefly until you obtain a uniform, smooth dough. If too sticky, add a bit more flour.
3. Form a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

[Chocolate Frangipane Filling]
1. Grind almonds and sugar together to a fine powder.
2. Mix almond/sugar powder with butter, using a stand mixer. Slowly pour in the eggs. Add in the rice flour, the corn starch, and the cocoa powder. Finally, add finely crushed amaretti cookies. Refrigerate mixture in a bowl until short pastry dough is ready.

[Final assembly]
1. Turn oven to 375F.
2. Remove  dough from fridge and roll it out in a disk by putting it in between 2 pieces of non-stick parchment paper until the dough is a little thinner than 1/4 inch (4 mm). Remove paper from the dough. Place dough inside a tart pan with removable bottom. Trim dough in excess from the tart pan borders.
3. Spread the frangipane inside the tart to cover the whole surface.
4. Cut the pears in half and remove seeds. Peel each pear and push pear halves cut-side down into the mixture.
5. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the frangipane has risen.
6. Remove tart from the oven and let it cool. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve.

Enjoy and buon appetito!

-Lisa