We went to the farmer’s market near the Broadway market which is on every Sunday morning and bought beautiful seasonal pears. They were firm and healthy looking so I kept them for a few days to mature and they became sweet and juicy, perfect for the tart I had in mind! Imagine a sweet and thin sweet pastry case in a deep tin filled with a sweet eggy quiche mixture and these gorgeous juicy pears.
Once cooked, the tart should be wobbly like a custard tart, the pears should be soft and still juicy and their juices melted into the egg mixture. I eat it simply the way it is, slightly warm, but you can serve it with double cream or ice cream. You can also swap the pears with apples, but use very sweet apples like Golden or Gala, and add half a tsp of vanilla extract or cinnamon to your mix. For the pear option, if you have beautiful seasonal pears, then just make the most of them and don’t add anything to it.
Seasonal Pear Custard Tart
Ingredients
-For the pastry
- 250g plain flour
- 125g butter
- 125g icing sugar
- 1 large egg
- a pinch of salt
-For the filling
- 3 large eggs
- 170g milk (yes grams not ml)
- 50 caster sugar
- 50g ground almond
- 3 big, juicy and seasonal pears
- a handful of flaked almonds
Start with the pastry as it needs time to rest in the fridge. Mix the flour and the butter together with the tips of your fingers until you have fine crumbs. Add the sugar, salt and egg, mix well until the pastry comes together as a ball. Don’t over knead it, cover it in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Turn the oven on at 160C fan and roll the pastry quite thin. Cover a deep fluted flan tin with the pastry and cut the excess of pastry leaving an edge hanging down. Crumpled the extra pastry with your fingers along the top edge of the tin in order to stop the thin delicate pastry to slide down the side of the tin while blind baking. Fill the tin with baking beans or anything you generally use and blind bake for 12 minutes. Roll the rest of the pastry and cut thin slices to place on top of the tart at the end.
Meanwhile, mix all the filling ingredients together. Peel, halve and core the pears. Slice the halved pear halfway from the top so when you squeeze from the top they open in a fan shape. Take the pastry out of the oven, place the pears around the tin and pour the filling mixture over. Place the thin strips of pastry on top of the tart making sure to press the strips on the pastry case. Sprinkle the almond flakes on top and bake the tart for 40 minutes or until the pastry strips are golden and the filling feels wobbly.
Noémie's kitchen 
This looks amazing!! What’s Broadway market like? I’ve always wanted to go 🙂
The actual broadway market on Saturdays is great with lots of street food but the farmers market is cheaper and has all kind of products, like pheasant, rabbit and lots of seasonal fruits and veg. You should try them both 😉
It looks absolutely delicious, Noémie 🙂
Thank you! Glad you like it 🙂