Spooky Chocolate-Almond Pear Tart

It’s spooky season! As you may recall, I enjoy making fun Halloween treats, especially when there are parties I can bring them to. While I don’t have any particularly fancy Halloween plans this year, that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun with themed desserts– and this one is totally worth the effort!

I admit that I shamelessly lifted the idea (at least visually) from this Grim Reaper Galette from Ghoul At Heart, but since I didn’t have an entire bottle of Chambord to soak my pears in, and because I love the combination of pears and almonds, I decided to go in a different direction for the details. This tart uses a chocolate pate sucree, filled with chocolate frangipane and red wine-poached pear skulls. (Note: since I had extra ingredients I made some mini tartlets and spread some raspberry jam into the bottom of the crust before filling them– a tasty variation!)

The skulls were surprisingly easy to make– I used red D’Anjou pears, on the firm side to ensure that they didn’t fall apart, peeled, halved, and cored. I used a 1/4 tsp. measuring spoon to scoop out the eyes, and the tip of a paring knife to cut the nose and teeth. I poached the pears in a bottle of (cheap) red wine with an entertainingly goth-y label– you really don’t need to get the good stuff, since you’re pouring in sugar anyway! I will note that the pears don’t look all that red while in the wine bath (which worried me– I really wanted the color to pop), but once you take them out the color really comes through. And once they’re baked, they get even darker.

The finished tart was gothically gorgeous, not to mention delicious! The tart crust is almost cookie-like, while the frangipane filling is like a gooey brownie surrounding the boozy pears. Drizzled with a little red wine syrup (disturbingly blood-like), this dessert will be a fabulous finish to any Halloween dinner party!

I will note that there’s a decent amount of down time for this tart– your butter has to come to room temperature for the crust and frangipane, the crust needs time to rest and chill before rolling out, then more time to chill before baking. Then you need to blind bake and cool it the shell, and your poached pears need to be thoroughly chilled before assembling and baking the final tart. I split the work over two days, making my tart dough and pear skulls the night before and wrapping them in plastic to chill overnight, then making the frangipane and baking the tart the next day. If you want to serve this in the evening, get started in the morning to make sure everything is ready.

Spooky Chocolate-Almond Pear Tart

Chocolate Crust (from The Flavor Bender)

(makes enough for two 9″ tarts or one 9″ and six 4″ tarts)

• 10 tbsp. (150g) unsalted butter, very soft
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup (120g) powdered sugar
• 1 egg plus one egg yolk (70g)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups (260g) flour
• 1/2 cup (57g) cocoa powder

• In a large bowl, mix butter and salt together until smooth and creamy.
• Stir in the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
• Add egg and egg yolk, plus vanilla, and mix until smooth (it may look a little curdled but it’s fine).

• Sift the flour and cocoa together, and add it to the egg, butter, and sugar mixture.
• Gently mix in the flour until a soft and sticky dough forms.
• Cut the dough in half and shape each dough into a disc. Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to chill.
• When ready to bake, lightly flour your work surface and place one of the chilled discs onto it, knocking a few times with a rolling pin to soften.
• Roll out the dough into a circle about 3mm thick and carefully place into your a 9″ removable bottom tart pan. Do not stretch it, or it may shrink in the oven!
• Trim edges, prick all over with a fork, and freeze for 1 hour.
• In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Crumple a large piece of parchment paper to roughen it up a bit, then uncrumple and fit into your tart shell (this helps it get into the corners, and also release more easily later). Weigh down with pie weights, dried beans, uncooked rice, or sugar, making sure to pile up the weights around the edges of the pan to hold the sides in place.
• Bake for about 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Remove parchment and weights and let cool.

Pear Skulls

• 4-5 Red D’Anjou pears, or other firm pears that will hold their shape
• 1 bottle red wine
• 1 cup water
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar

• In a saucepan large enough to fit all of your halved pears in a single layer, pour your bottle of wine and add water and sugar. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
• In the meantime, cut your pears in half, core them, and peel them (in whichever order you prefer, I did it in this order so they wouldn’t be slippery while I was trying to core them).
• Using a measuring spoon or tiny melon baller, scoop out eye sockets from your pears. Cut nose and teeth with paring knife. Trim off the narrow end of the pear if necessary to get the right skull shape.

• Add pears to hot wine, skull side up. (I did mine skull side down and it deformed the skull features just a bit). Hopefully your liquid will be high enough to cover the skulls, but if not, be prepared to turn them to ensure they poach evenly.
• Bring wine to a low simmer, cover the saucepan, and cook for about 20 minutes, until tender but not soft.
• Remove pears from wine and let cool on a plate. Bring remaining wine to a boil and cook until syrupy. Set syrup aside for later.

• At this point you can chill your pears in the refrigerator for an hour or more, covered.

Chocolate Frangipane (from Foodgal)

• 1 cup (121 g) almond flour or meal
• 3 tablespoons (23 g) flour
• 2 tablespoons (12 g) cocoa powder
• ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

• Whisk almond flour, regular flour, and cocoa powder in a medium bowl.
• Beat butter and sugar in the clean bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time, incorporating completely before adding the next one.
• Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients and beat to combine.
• Add chocolate, vanilla extract, almond extract, and salt and beat until smooth.

To assemble:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Spread frangipane into the bottom of cooled and blind-baked tart shell.

• Arrange chilled pear skulls on top of frangipane.

• Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until frangipane is puffed and barely jiggles around pears.
• Cool to room temperature before slicing.
• Just before serving, brush pears with red wine syrup for shine.