Chocolate and pear tarts, compulsive behaviour and chainsaws
This will be the last pear/chocolate recipe for a while, I promise. I appear (!) to have become slightly obsessed with this heavenly combination, but that’s still no excuse for being a bore. Talking of bores, I’ve been having wild cow-related issues this week. We’ve had a lot of very strong gales which, if you live here, translates into the need to travel everywhere with a chainsaw (pine trees are quite vulnerable and fall easily in high winds). Personally, I never go anywhere without mine – you just never know when it’s going to come in handy. Which brings me back to wild cows; I have spotted several within uncomfortably close range recently. When I reported my ‘sightings’ to the local Mairie, the information was met with a definite ‘course you did, dearie’ sort of look, which I thought was a bit audacious, especially in view of the contents of my car boot 😉
The pastry for this tart is wheat-free, but not entirely gluten-free, spelt containing a small amount.
Ingredients for pastry (serves 6-8):
150g buckwheat flour
70g spelt flour
50g butter
50g virgin coconut oil
Roughly 6 tablespoons of cold water
Ingredients for filling:
40g dark chocolate (min. 70% cocoa)
1 tablespoon rum
15ml cream
1 large pear
3 tablespoons watermelon, pear, apple or ginger jam
To make the pastry, begin by cutting the butter and coconut oil into small cubes. Add to the flour in a mixing bowl and add a pinch of sea salt. Blend by hand until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the cold water, mixing rapidly with a spoon. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until you obtain a ball of pastry (if the mixture isn’t ‘sticky’ enough to form a ball, you may need a drop more water). Wrap in a clean cotton tea towel and leave to ‘rest’ in the fridge for about two hours. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to use.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll out the pastry on a clean, lightly floured surface and fill the tart tins. Precook the pastry for 12 minutes.
Melt the chocolate with the rum. Once melted, add the cream and mix to form a smooth sauce. Line the base of each tart with the chocolate. Peel the pear and cut into thin slices. Cover the chocolate base with the pears, overlapping them to cover well. Cover the top with a thin layer of jam and then cook for about 15 minutes. Delicious hot or cold.
9 Comments
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afracooking
So creative! Wow! Thank you for sharing!
The Healthy Epicurean
Thank you 🙂 I hope you enjoy it if you make it…
Aeriol
do you have a suggested alternative for the spelt flour. I am a celiac and spelt has gluten in it.
The Healthy Epicurean
You can make this pastry using ONLY buckwheat flour. In fact, from a taste and crispness point of view it’s maybe preferable. I love crisp pastry. The only drawback is, as buckwheat contains no gluten, it’s very crumbly to work with and you have to do a bit of a patch up job. If you try it though, I think you’ll probably agree that it’s well worth the effort though…
gomo @ chowdivine
This sounds delicious! I love pears and chocolate together. I guess I love just about everything with chocolate. 🙂
The Healthy Epicurean
You and me both! Somehow everything tastes just a little bit better with a touch of chocolate!
Joe Malone
Yes, it contains gluten because it isn’t actually wheat free. Spelt is made from an ancient form of wheat. Far preferable to modern refined wheat flours but celiacs still need to take care.
The Healthy Epicurean
Yes spelt is an ancient ‘wheat’ that does contain gluten which makes it unsuitable for celiacs. However, for the rest of us, the gluten in spelt is more easily digestible than that contained in wheat.