Pear Tart with Pecan Crust

I seem to be a little fruity lately. Enjoying a lot of fruit in desserts, that is!

This past weekend, we had friends over for dessert after eating at one of our favorite restaurants together on Saturday night.  One of those friends had given me this recipe for pear tart that she was served at a relative's home recently.  She gave me the recipe and I thought I'd surprise her by making it. I'm sorry I don't know the original source of the recipe. I tried a web search but never found an exact match.

The pecan crust is simply patted into a tart pan with removable bottom.  Pears are sliced and tossed together with sugar, cornstarch and ginger.  The recipe called for dried ginger but I decided to use lots of crystallized ginger instead. Next time, I think I'll add some freshly grated ginger along with the crystallized ginger.

The juice from the pears and the cornstarch combine while baking to make a thickened sauce around the pears that was delicious.

A quick, simple and lovely recipe that is a great way to use the beautiful fall crop of pears that you'll find at the farmers' markets and grocery stores right now.

Pear Tart with Pecan Crust
Printable Recipe

You will need a tart pan with a removable bottom. Mine was about 9-10" wide.

For the Tart:

2 heaping teaspoons of crystallized ginger, chopped fine
2 tablespoons corn starch
2/3 cup sugar
6 pears (I used Bartlett but Anjou and Bosch would work well also), peeled, cored and cut into thick slices

For the Crust:

1/2 cup pecans, chopped fine in a food processor
1 cup flour
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine the crust ingredients in a medium bowl and cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork. Pat firmly into the bottom and sides of a tart pan with removable bottom.

Put the pear slices into a large bowl and add the sugar, corn starch and ginger and toss until mixed together.

Place the pears in concentric circles in the prepared tart crust starting at the outside and placing largest end of each slice toward the outside of the tart, placing them as tightly together as you can. Continue with a second row overlapping the first row by about one inch. Continue until the tart pan is full of pears, using small pieces to fill the center.

Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before serving.