I love a good tart. They may take a lot of time and effort to prepare and peel and chop and blind bake but they are SO worth the effort. This is the Pear tart recipe I used when I took dessert to my sister’s house on Rosh Hashannah (the Jewish New year) after synagogue a couple of weeks ago. I knew she was making a meat meal which meant pud had to be dairy free. I used Tomar which is a kosher, dairy free alternative to butter. It’s actually a vegetable fat and makes a pretty good pastry – if I do say so myself.  We had a slice or two with a dairy free ice cream made with soya – have you ever tried soya ice-cream? It’s seriously creamy!

All that’s left to say is that with a slither of marzipan in this Pear pie and a tummy full of delish Chollent (thanks Shell)our New Year got off to a really good start!

Dairy Free Pear Tart

Pastry

• 175g plain flour
• 75g butter/Tomar vegetable margarine
• 1 egg yolk (large)
• 1 tbsp water

Filling

• 75g marzipan
• 2-3 apples – peeled, cored and sliced
• 25g butter/Tomar
• 4 tbsp Apricot jam
• 25g golden caster sugar
• 4 pears, sliced with the core removed

To Glaze

• 3 tbsp apricot jam

1. Heat oven to 180ºC (Fan oven160ºC)
2. To make the pastry: Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine with your hands. Be careful not to over mix as this will end in a really tough pastry. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes.
3. Remove from the fridge and roll out the pastry so it’s nice and thin. Place it in the pie dish (Mine was a 23cm Pyrex dish). Scrunch up a piece of baking paper and place it over the pastry then add baking beans on top (you can use rice or dried beans if you don’t have ceramic baking beans but the ceramic ones do add more heat) Bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove any excess pastry from the edge of the dish.
4. To make the filling peel, core and chop the apples and place in a large frying pan with the butter and sugar until they become soft. Drain any excess liquid away then press through a sieve so you get a puree. Place back in the saucepan and add the jam till it is all combined. Leave to simmer till some of the liquid has evaporated and the puree is nice and thick. Set aside to cool a little.
5. Roll out the marzipan so it’s very thin then place it over the bottom of the pastry case.
6. Spread the puree over the marzipan then add the thinly sliced pear in a decorative pattern.
7. Once filled bake for 25 minutes until the pear is golden brown.
8. Heat up the apricot jam so it is nice and runny then as soon as you take the pie out of the oven spread the jam over the top of the whole pie while it’s still hot using a silicon pastry brush. Leave to cool a little before serving with a big dollop of vanilla ice cream.

enjoy!

EmmaMT x

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