Pear and Amaretto Tart.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

200g Butter, cold and diced

400g Plain flour

100g Icing sugar

1 Egg

2 tblsp Milk

To poach the pears:

5 Pears, slightly under ripe, peeled

100g Caster sugar

1 Cinnamon stick

1 Star anise

Water

For the Filling:

3 Eggs

125g Soft dark brown sugar

140g Butter, softened

180g Ground almonds

100g Amaretti biscuits, crushed.

100ml Amaretto liqueur

2 tblsp Self raising flour

To finish:

Apricot glaze (optional)

Method:

For the pastry:

Place the flour and butter in a bowl and sieve the icing sugar in. Rub the butter into the flour until evenly mixed and there are no lumps of butter.
Add the egg and milk and bring together to form a dough but do not overwork.
Divide into two balls, cling film individually.
You only need one of these balls for this recipe so refrigerate one for half an hour, the other can be frozen for another tart.
After the pastry has rested in the fridge remove and roll on a lightly floured surface into a circle about the thickness of a two pound coin (2-3mm)
Carefully transfer into a lightly greased 9 inch/23cm tart tin. Make sure the pastry is flush to the sides and into the corners, trim the excess pastry from the edges.
Place the tart into the fridge to rest for thirty minutes.

Pre heat an oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) gas mark 4
Line the inside of the pastry with two layers of tin foil and fill with baking beans (or use rice or dried beans)
Bake for 15 minutes then remove the foil and bake for a further 5 minutes, the pastry should be just cooked and mostly uncoloured.

For the pears:

Place the peeled pears, cinnamon stick, star anise and caster sugar in a pan and fill with water to cover the pears.
Bring to the boil then turn down and simmer for two minutes minutes, allow the pears to cool in the syrup.
When the pears have cooled remove from the syrup. Take two of the pears, cut into four, remove the stalk and core and cut into 2mm slices. Take the other three pears and halve top to bottom, remove any stalk and and carefully remove any core and seeds.

For the filling:

Add the soft brown sugar and softened butter to a bowl and beat until lightened and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating each one in.
Add the ground almonds, crushed amaretti biscuits and flour, mix together.
Whisk in the amaretto liquer.

To finish:

Spoon the filling on top of the pears and spread evenly.
Place the halved pears on top of the filling, outside facing up and push down so the pears are half submerged.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until the top is browned a and the filling is firm to touch.

To finish:

If using the apricot glaze, allow the tart to cool for 20 minutes before melting the glaze and brushing the top of the tart.

Serve warm or room temp.