Pear and Almond Tart with Spelt Flour Shortcrust Pastry
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Ingredients
For the spelt shortcrust pastry
  • 2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
  • ⅔ cup salted butter
  • 3 T rapadura sugar
  • 7 tablespoons ice water
For the tart
  • 5-6 ripe pears
  • 3 cardamon pods
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 cloves
  • 1 cup sugar
For the Almond Paste
  • 200g ground almonds
  • 140g butter, creamed
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 20ml spelt flour
  • 170g rapadura sugar OR 200g castor sugar
Glaze: (Optional)
  • 60ml apricot jam
  • juice of ½ lemon
Instructions
Pastry
*The key to good shortcrust pastry when using a high protein flour like spelt is to keep your ingredients as cold as possible so you could even store your spelt in the freezer and remove it just before use. You can pre cut your butter into small diced peices and refrigerate them until needed as well. It was so hot the afternoon I was making this for our bbq that none of my ingredients would stay cold but it worked in this recipe anyway. The almond paste and pears are such a delight that bad pastry is easily forgiven.
I used my processor to make the pastry because I am all about making it easier to make your own food against buying chemical laden products off the shelf so ease and convenience are high on my priority list. I don't think it works as well if you were making quiche which really relies on the quality of the shortcrust.
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C
  2. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the sugar and stir, making sure the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat down slightly and add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamon pods.
  3. Core the pears from the bottom and peel keeping them whole then slide them into the poaching liquid and poach for 25 minutes at a low boil until soft. Remove from the heat and allow the pears to cool completely in their own liquid.
  4. Combine the spelt flour, sugar and diced butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles lentils adding ice water as needed and being careful not to over manipulate.
  5. Remove the pastry from the processor and bring it all together in a ball gently.
  6. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 20 mins.
  7. In the processor combine the ingredients for the almond paste and blend until smooth.
  8. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out between 2 sheets of baking paper until it is ½ cm thick then line your tart tin with it, gently pressing it in.
  9. Spread the almond paste over the pastry and place the drained pears nicely ontop. (you can slice the pears if you want and layer them out but I prefer the dramatic presentation of whole poached pears)
  10. Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
  11. Make the glaze by melting the apricot jam with 4oml water and a squeeze of lemon juice. carefully brush over the pears and return to the oven for 2-3 minutes. This can be done just before serving.
  12. Remove from the oven and serve with whole organic cream or coconut yogurt.
Recipe by The Luminous Kitchen at http://theluminouskitchen.com/pear-almond-tart-spelt-four-shortcrust-pastry/