Pear Frangipane Tart
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This tasty pear frangipane tart is made from scratch with homemade pastry crust, rich almond filling and poached pears. Includes detailed recipe with a video and process photos!
Pear frangipane tart can be enjoyed warm or cold, as is or with whipped cream, ice cream, or vanilla custard sauce.
Detailed instructions, pro tips as well as video on how to make homemade shortcrust pastry are part of this post. Step-by-step photos are part of the recipe card.
How to make pear frangipane tart
The prep is divided into 3 main steps. First, make the pastry. This is a very easy and quick homemade pastry recipe. And so worth making it from scratch.
The next step is poaching pears. This does not take long and the whole prep and poaching are done while the pear tart pastry is resting. However, you can easily use canned pear halves which makes it a great all-year-round tart recipe.
Finally, we prepare the frangipane filling – this is a mixture of sugar, butter, ground almonds, eggs, and flour.
The recipe card has all the steps explained. This takes about 5-7 minutes and is also done during the pastry resting time.
We bake the pastry crust for 10 minutes, then add frangipane layer and pear. This goes back in the oven and you need to bake it until the middle layer is set. The top should be golden brown.
This is a simple pear tart recipe that is not overly sweet. Pears are one of the key ingredients and without them, this tart would taste rather plain.
If you are looking for more pear desserts, I have a few ideas for you:
Stuffed baked pears are made with puff pastry. They are easy to make and look so pretty. Another great way to use pears is making a pear galette. This rustic tart makes a tasty dessert.
Pro tips
- For this pear frangipane tart recipe, you want to use superfine sugar. It has finer sugar crystals than classic white granulated sugar, but this also can vary from country to country so you might be ok with using regular sugar. Alternatively, you can run it through a food processor to get a finer texture.
- If your sugar looks more like salt (texture-wise) rather than large crystals, then you are good to go!
- Time-saving tip: I am using fresh pears that I poach prior to baking. This step can be omitted if you use canned pear halves.
- Make ahead: Frangipane pear tart pastry, as well as poached pears, can be prepared ahead of time. The same goes for the frangipane filling for a pear tart. However, it’s good to bear in mind that the cooking time may be longer as all the ingredients will be well chilled. The filling should be brought to room temperature, so it is spreadable.
- Make 1 large or 2 small pear tarts: for small ones use smaller pears, for the large tart large pears will work better.
- Instead of ground cinnamon, you can use 1 cinnamon stick.
More simple tart recipes for you to try:
- Strawberry Coconut Tart – a unique tart recipe.
- Plum Tart
- Lemon Tart – our readers’ favorite!
- Fig Tart
Check out our video for how to make pear frangipane tart
Pear Frangipane Tart
Ingredients
For pastry:
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (210 grams), see note 1
- 3 tablespoons superfine sugar (45 grams), see note 2
- 1 stick unsalted butter , chilled (110 grams)
- 1 egg yolk
- 3 tablespoons cold water
For poached pears:
- 3 pears , small to medium, see note 3
- 2 cups water
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup sugar (50 grams)
For frangipane:
- 1 stick unsalted butter , diced, at room temperature (110 grams)
- ½ cup superfine sugar (100 grams)
- 1 cup , heaped ground almonds (110 grams)
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (40 grams)
- 3 eggs , medium-sized, at room temperature
Instructions
- Pastry: In a mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar. Mix.
- Add butter. Use your hand to work the butter into the flour mixture until you get a crumb-like texture (break the butter, mix it with some flour and continue until completely crumbled, check my pastry video if in doubt).
- Add egg yolk and water. Start forming the dough with your hands. It will take about 5 minutes. You want to form a nice ball of dough that is not sticking to your fingers much (the more you knead the warmer the dough gets and the stickier).
- Wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Pears: While waiting for the pastry to chill, prepare pears, then frangipane. Rinse pears and cut each in half. Peel them and remove seeds and hard parts. In a small saucepan, combine water, sugar and cinnamon. Add pears, mix and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. When ready, drain the water and set the pears aside for later.
- Frangipane: In a mixing bowl, with hand mixer beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add almonds, flour and eggs. Mix with the mixer until well combined. Set aside.
- Tart: Divide pastry in half (when making 2 tarts). On a floured work top, roll out half of the pastry about ¼-inch thick/0.5-centimeter. Transfer the pastry into a greased 7-inch sandwich pan (or use baking parchment on the bottom and grease sides with butter).
- Using your fingertips, press pastry into the corners of your pan/tin. To avoid tearing, lift the pastry with one hand and then press down into the corner with another one. Trim off the excess pastry using a knife. If you have another pan, repeat the process.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F/180°C for 10 minutes. Take out, fill with frangipane and top with cooked (and drained) pears.
- Transfer back to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes (or until the filling has set) at the same temperature.
- Once ready, let it cool down before removing from the tin. If greased well, it will easily come out.
- Dust with powdered sugar (optional) and serve!
Video
Notes
- All-purpose flour (US) = Plain flour (UK, IRL).
- Superfine sugar is the same as castor sugar. It is granulated white sugar with small sugar crystals. It has a pretty much a similar texture to fine salt. If your regular white sugar comes in such texture, then go ahead and use it.
- Large pears will work better when making one large pear tart and you might need to use more. Smaller pears are perfect when making 2 small tarts.
- The crust can be made ahead and kept in the fridge overnight. The following day let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling. Pears can also be poached in.
- This recipe card contains process photos but if in doubt, please check the video that will help you visualize the process. For more tips, please read the post above this recipe card.
- Most of the prep will be done during the inactive time (when the pastry is resting in the fridge) for that reason, the time needed to make frangipane and poach pears is included in the prep time.
Mouthwatering, I know what I’ll be making this summer!
Let me know if you liked it! Happy Baking! :)