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Raspberry Pear Tart with Hazelnut Crust
recipe adapted from tasteofhome.com
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: pear tart, raspberry tart, tart
Servings: 16
Author: Radhika @ justhomemade
Ingredients
For the Crust:
  • 1-2/3 cups half and half mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup cane sugar
  • 2/3 cup or 10 ⅔ tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup hazelnuts
  • ¼ tsp salt
For the Filling:
  • 4 small-medium pears I've used Seckel pears
  • 1/2 cup cane sugar
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch corn flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp lemon extract / lemon zest
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 2 cups fresh raspberries 6 oz or ½ dry pint, more will also do
For the Topping:
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1/4 cup cold butter or 4 tbsp
  • 1/3 cup almonds
Instructions

  1. Read the full recipe before starting. To start with, roast hazelnuts and almonds.

    Roast the hazelnuts for about 5 minutes until fragrant.

    When cooled, pulse it in a food processor or coffee grinder or mixer until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Pulse more and you will end up with hazelnut butter. Roast almonds the same way. Chop into bits when cooled and keep aside.

  2. Wash the pears, pat dry, peel, core and slice into thin rounds about 1/8th of an inch. Squeeze lemon juice over the pear slices (to keep them from browning), mix well and set aside.

  3. Preheat the oven to 425° F or 220° C

  4. In a large bowl, combine flour and cane sugar

    cut in cold butter and either mix well with your fingers or process in a food processor (I did the former) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If you see pea sized butter blobs here and there, it is fine.

  5. Stir in hazelnut meal. Gently press this flour mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of an un-greased 10 inch fluted tart pan with removable bottom.

  6. In a large bowl, combine the pears, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon zest/extract. Add raspberries and toss gently. Carefully lay out the fruit mix on to the crust filling empty spots with raspberries.

  7. Bake at 425° F or 220° C for 25 minutes

  8. In the meanwhile, for the topping,

    In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar and lemon zest; cut in butter and mix until crumbly. Stir in chopped roasted almonds. Sprinkle over filling.

  9. Bake 15-20 minutes longer or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown.

  10. Cool on a wire rack.

  11. Tastes best served warm by itself or served with an indulging vanilla ice cream with some raspberries on top

Notes

Do not overly press the four mixture onto the tart pan or it will result in a hard tart crust instead of crumbly.

Instead of washing the raspberries as they become soggy, just wipe them with a soft wet cloth or tissue.

You can core the fruit even if you don't have a corer. Insert a (vertical) peeler at the bottom end of the pear and rotate clockwise and anti-clockwise once each or until the core comes out. 

If you happen to make the flour mixture for the tart crust before slicing up the fruit, do not fret! "Carefully" place the tart pan (remember the pan bottom can move) on a baking tray and put it in the refrigerator until the filling is ready. Since the flour mix is dry and crumbly, tart crust can shatter easily at this point.

Be very careful when taking the baked tart out of the removable pan to place on the cooling rack or it might break.

Add a few drops of water to cane sugar if you do not have brown sugar

If you can't find Hazelnuts, they can be safely substituted with almonds without much damage to the recipe or taste.