It’s chestnut time, and in this delicious and fragrant tart, we will not use the fruit but its flour, extremely delicious and aromatic. The tart with chestnut flour and pears is a delightful shortcrust pastry shell prepared with a part of chestnut flour, filled with a tasty filling of fresh fruit, specifically pears. It’s a fragrant autumn dessert, pleasing to the palate and eye, and most importantly, very easy to make. It’s ideal for important dinners, Sunday lunch finishes, but we can also enjoy it for breakfast or as a snack. I recommend preparing it a day in advance to let the shortcrust pastry rest and further enhance the aromas and flavors.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter
Ingredients
- 4.23 oz chestnut flour
- 6.35 oz all-purpose flour
- 3.53 oz cold butter
- 3.53 oz brown sugar
- 1 pinch fine salt
- 2 medium whole eggs
- 1 medium yolk
- to taste grated orange peel (or mandarin)
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- 2.2 lbs pears (very firm)
- 1 pinch ground vanilla (or other flavor to taste)
- to taste brown sugar (to sprinkle over the tart)
Tools
- 1 Baking Pan
Steps
1) Let’s prepare the shortcrust pastry. In a large bowl, sift together the two types of flour, add the very cold butter cut into small pieces, brown sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, grated citrus peel, and, with the help of a spatula, mix just enough to combine the ingredients and not warm the butter too much. We will get a dough ball that we will gently flatten with a rolling pin (it will firm up faster and more evenly in the fridge); leave it in the bowl covered with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour to firm up.
2) Meanwhile, peel the pears and cut them into cubes (it’s important they are very firm). Flavor them with ground vanilla (or a few drops of liquid vanilla) and a pinch of cinnamon.
3) Preheat the oven to 392°F.
4) Dust a sheet of parchment paper with a little flour and place the shortcrust pastry on it. Also, dust the surface of the dough with a little flour and, using a rolling pin, roll it out on the parchment paper; the thickness should be about 0.2 inches.
5) Thanks to the parchment paper, we will have no problems lifting the shortcrust pastry and placing it in a 28-30 cm tart pan (preferably the type with a removable bottom). With your fingers, gently and quickly press the pastry to adhere it perfectly to the parchment paper. Trim the edges and cut off the excess dough, which we will use to create the tart lattice (if the room temperature is too high, put the leftover shortcrust pastry back in the fridge for a few minutes).
With part of the leftover egg white, waterproof the shortcrust pastry with a food brush or your fingers. It’s a “consistency-saving trick,” so to speak, that I use when the tart filling is made of fruit, which releases liquids during baking and might make the shortcrust pastry soggy.
6) Fill the tart shell with the pears, distributing them evenly. Take the leftover shortcrust pastry, roll it out, and cut strips to decorate the tart.
7) Bake our tart at mid-height for about 25 minutes. When the tart is cooked, turn off the oven, take out the pan, and sprinkle the surface with a little brown sugar; put the tart back in the turned-off oven and leave it for about 10 minutes; then take it out and let it cool without touching it, to avoid breaking it.
Bon appetit
