Chocolate Pear Frangipane Tart (Vegan)
This incredible vegan chocolate pear frangipane tart is like a brownie pie, with crisp chocolate pastry, fudgy chocolate frangipane and jammy poached pears.
Servings 10 people
Equipment
- 23 cm/9 in round pie dish
Ingredients
Poached Pears:
- 4 small conference pears, just ripe peeled
- 1 litre (4 cups) water
- 200 g (1 cup) caster or granulated sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pastry:
- 200 g (1 + ⅔ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 30 g (⅓ cup) cocoa powder
- 65 g (½ cup) icing (powdered) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 130 g (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) vegan block butter cold and diced
- 1 Tablespoon cold vodka (or water)
Frangipane:
- 100 g (3 ½ oz) dark chocolate finely chopped
- 110 g (½ cup) vegan block butter cubed
- 90 ml (6 Tablespoons) unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use soy)
- 110 g (½ cup) caster or granulated sugar
- 35 g (⅓ cup + 1 teaspoon) cocoa powder
- 30 g (¼ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 200 g (2 cups) ground almonds (almond flour)
Instructions
- To make the poached pears, place the water, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla in a deep saucepan. Bring up to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the peeled pears and cook at a gentle simmer for 20 minutes until they are tender.
- Set the pears aside to cool in the poaching liquid.
- To make the pastry, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the cold butter and rub in using your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs and no lumps of butter remain.
- Add the cold vodka (if using) and mix to combine. Gradually add enough cold water to bring the pastry together into a ball. Shape the pastry into a disc (don't knead it), wrap and refrigerate for about an hour until firm enough to roll out.
- Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface into a circle big enough to line a 23 cm/9 in round pie dish. Press the pastry right into the corners then trim off the excess.
- Prick the base of the pastry shell all over with a fork then place it in the freezer for 20 minutes until solid. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Line the pastry case with baking parchment, pressing it right into the corners, then fill with baking beans or dried rice, making sure that the sides are propped up.
- Bake for 20 minutes then remove the parchment and baking beans and return the tart shell to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes until dry to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- To make the frangipane melt the chocolate and vegan butter together in a large bowl, either over a pan of hot water or in short bursts in the microwave, stirring often.
- Whisk in the milk and sugar then sift in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder and add the ground almonds. Stir with a balloon whisk until well combined.
- Pour the frangipane into the pastry case and spread it level.
- Drain the pears really well and pat dry with kitchen paper. Slice the pears in half lengthways and use a teaspoon to gently scoop out the core, stem and seeds. Cut slices down the length of the pear half leaving the narrow end uncut. Spread the pear slices to form a fan shape.
- Arrange the fanned pears on top of the frangipane, you probably will not need all of them.
- Bake the tart for about 50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the frangipane comes out gunky with moist crumbs, but no wet batter. Allow to cool for half an hour before serving.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup coversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- You can use tinned pear halves instead of the poached pears. Drain them well and pat dry with kitchen paper.