Pear Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Get ready to wow your friends and family with this beautiful pear chocolate hazelnut tart. With a buttery hazelnut crust, rich chocolate filling, and cinnamon-spiced pear, you'll be lushing after this decadent dessert.

Ingredients

• Hazelnuts: Also known as filberts, are small, round nuts with a sweet, nutty flavor. Their flavor profile pairs wonderfully with pears but you can replace them with
• Egg white: The egg white helps bind together the ingredients for the crust.
• Bittersweet chocolate: A type of dark chocolate with high cocoa content and less sugar. It has a rich, intense chocolate flavor with a slight bitterness. You can substitute bittersweet chocolate with semisweet chocolate if you prefer a slightly sweeter flavor.
• Bosc or Anjou pears: Bosc and Anjou pears are varieties of European pears. Bosc pears are known for their brown skin and sweet, juicy flesh, while Anjou pears have green or red skin and a slightly sweet flavor. You can substitute Bosc or Anjou pears with other pear varieties like Bartlett or Comice, depending on availability.
• Cinnamon: A spice obtained from the bark of trees with a warm, sweet flavor that compliments the chocolate, hazelnuts, and pear.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Bake the hazelnut crust

Let's get started, shall we? This tart isn't as difficult as say my earl grey pie but it still does require some work. The first step is to make the hazelnut crust.

The crust is made predominantly from hazelnuts. Add egg white and butter to bind the mixture together, and sugar to sweeten it. Make sure to spray the tart pan first to prevent the crust from sticking. Press the hazelnut crust into the pan and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the crust completely before adding the filling.

Step 2: Prepare chocolate filling

While the crust is cooling, make the chocolate filling. To avoid having an overly sweet pear chocolate hazelnut tart, we're going to use bittersweet chocolate. Melt butter and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and pour the mixture over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate has melted. You can also heat the butter and sugar in the microwave if that's easier.

Beat the remaining sugar with eggs using a whisk attachment until the mixture is a pale yellow, about 3-4 minutes on medium speed. When you lift the whisk, the egg-sugar mixture should flow like a thick ribbon. Add ⅓ of this mixture to the chocolate, stirring to loosen up the chocolate. Fold in the remaining mix, adding ⅓ of the eggs at a time.

Step 2: Arrange pear slices and bake

Pour the chocolate filling into the hazelnut crust and arrange the sliced peeled pears on top. If you want to be extra professional, you can first practice arranging the pears on a cutting board and then transfer them to the tart. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of the pears, garnish with some hazelnuts, and bake the tart until the center is only slightly wobbly. It should still jiggle just a bit just like cheesecake.

Cool the tart completely before slicing into this bad boy. You can also chill the tart overnight and wait to cut into it the next day if you can wait. I did notice that when the pear chocolate hazelnut tart has chilled overnight, the hazelnut crust does soften up. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. It's delicious either way, with a crunchy crust or a softer one.

It's been two days and I have worked my way through a quarter of the tart. Not bad progress, wouldn't you say?

Frequently asked questions

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Recipe

Print Recipe

Pear Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: tarts

Servings: 8

Author: Christine Ma

Ingredients

Hazelnut crust

• 2 cups hazelnuts skins removed
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg white

Chocolate filling

• ½ cup butter
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar divided
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 Bosc or Anjou pears peeled, thinly sliced
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Use a food processor to pulse hazelnuts until finely ground. Combine the ground hazelnuts with melted butter, brown sugar, and egg white. Spray a tart pan with cooking spray and press the hazelnut mixture into the pan to create the crust. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool the crust completely.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
• Make the tart filling. Melt butter with ⅓ cup sugar in a small pot over medium-low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the butter over the bittersweet chocolate in a large bowl, stirring until the chocolate has melted.
• Beat together the remaining ⅓ cup sugar with 3 eggs using a whisk attachment until it's pale yellow and thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Add ⅓ of the egg mixture to the chocolate, stirring until well combined. Fold in the remaining egg mixture to the chocolate, adding ⅓ of the eggs at a time. Pour the chocolate filling into the hazelnut crust.
• Peel and thinly slice 3 pears about ⅛ inch thick. Arrange the sliced pears on the chocolate filling. Combine cinnamon with granulated sugar and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top of the pears. Arrange hazelnuts on top.
• Bake the tart for 40-45 minutes or until the edges have set. The center of the tart will still be a little wobbly. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Notes

The pear chocolate hazelnut tart should keep for 5 days if stored in an airtight container.