Mini Pear Almond Tart
Happy holidays everyone. It’s my favorite time of the year – I’m all for decorating and blasting Christmas music and opening gifts. I know Christmas is more than gifts, but I can’t help but light up like a kid when I get something I’m been wanting forever.
Like my new mini food processor! It’s so adorable and useful and the perfect size.


I told B I wanted one for Christmas (with a stipulation that it had to be small). Although I told him to wait til Black Friday for sales, he bought one immediately and had it shipped.
As this mini prep cuisine food processor was just sitting around my apartment, I couldn’t not use it. So I opened it up to make the dough for this pear tart. I’m not a very patient person (I was better as a kid, and actually waited til Christmas)
If you make any kind of pastry dough, getting a food processor for that alone is worth it (never mind processing things like vegetables)

I love almond tarts and pears were a perfect combination for this. Any hard pear will do, but I recommend bosc pears in particular. You can use canned pears, but I do recommend poaching them as it’s easy and you can add so much flavor while controlling the sugar. Poaching is basically boiling and simmering anything in a liquid, ranging from eggs to fruit. When you slice the pears yourself, it’s so much prettier.
This pear almond tart is adapted from Epicurious; I made it with my mini 3 inch tart tins, so they’re perfect for sharing amongst 2-3 people (or 1 if you’re B). Enjoy!
Mini Pear Almond Tart
Ingredients
PEARS
4 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 Bosc pears, peeled
ALMOND CRUST
see recipe for almond tart dough
ALMOND FILLING
2/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
Directions
PEARS: Boil water, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and add pears. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until pears are tender, turning occasionally, about 15 minutes. Let pears cool in syrup and refrigerate (can be made ahead of time).
ALMOND TART DOUGH: prepare as per recipe for almond tart dough (can be made ahead of time). Once the dough is chilled and ready, preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill your tart pan with chilled dough and bake blind for about 6-8 min.
ALMOND FILLING: Grind almonds in a food processor. Blend in flour, sugar, and butter and then mix in egg. Transfer filling to medium bowl. Cover and chill at least 3 hours (can be made ahead of time).
ASSEMBLY: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F.
Take your cooled prebaked almond tart crusts and spread almond filling evenly in the crust. Remove the pear stem, cut each in half lengthwise, and remove out the core. Cut each half crosswise into thin slices. Line the pears on the almond filling so they overlap.
Bake tart until golden, about 55 minutes for a large tart (for my mini ones about 20 min). Cool tart in pan on rack and serve at room temperature, Enjoy!
Yay for food processors! I finallyyyyy got myself one about a month ago…but I mailed it to my parents' house instead (…). Sigh, haha.
That pear tart looks absolutely amazing! :] So perfect for the holidays! (Definitely one of my favorite times of the year as well!)
Hey, I found you through FB group 😀 I must say I looooove your blog name!! 😀 I'm saving the recipe, because I love pears and these tarts look so delicious 😀
I cannot wait to make this!
these are just beautiful! plus, i'm so ready for pears to be the pome of choice…apples are getting old! 🙂
The photos are amazing, I bet this is delicios.
This looks delicious!!! Perfect and festive for the holidays!
These mini tarts are so cute! They would make the perfect treat to serve during the holidays!
They look delicious! I love pear and almond, so will have to try these sometime 🙂
I love this tart so much ! I love your blog too
Pears, cooked in any form, are my most favourite dessert – thanks a lot for sharing this recipe, I will have to try it on the weekend!
Well, now you have me wanting to add a mini food processor to my Christmas list. The tarts look delicious, by the way!!!
To your parent's house!? Hope you're able to make use of it still haha
Glad you love the blog name – I enjoy it myself. Hope you like the tarts!
Pears are a nice twist and they're so versatile too
Thank you! This was a lot of fun to photograph
I love fruit tarts/pies for the holidays – perfect for potlucks
Thanks Sonali. I love mini anything (perfect portion control too)
Pear and almond is one of my favorite combos
Glad you're enjoying the blog!
I rarely cook pears so this was new to me. I had never poached pears before (save the juice – a sangria recipe is coming up!)
It's perfect for small kitchens so I recommend it to all bakers – the time saved "cutting" the butter for pastry dough is worth it
I absolutely love pears and I´m always glad to find new recipes with them.
Artfully sliced pears make any dessert elegant and fall/winter worthy
Pear's are juicy. This dessert was juicy! Two thumbs up!
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