Mini Pear Tarts

Pears have been on the markets for several weeks. Since I was going to cook them for the first time this year,I wanted to have a sweet and crunchy base, but also to leave the maximum space for the fruit. I achieved my aim with simple tarts, thanks to the very thin pastry layer, the absence of tart sides (which is good news for those who don’t have mini-tart forms!) and the generous layer of fruit. The French-style tarts are light, delicate, crunchy and the pear is THE protagonist.

Whatever variety you choose, the pears shouldn’t be too ripe, otherwise they will be difficult to cut into thin slices and they may fall into pieces during the baking process.

Preparation: 15 minutes+baking (around 30 minutes)

Ingredients for around 18 – 20 mini tarts (6 cm diameter):

1 ready made puff pastry or other tart pastry (around 230g, thinly rolled out)

10 small or 7 big pears

cane sugar

ground cinnamon

ground clove (half of the cinnamon quantity)

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut out 6cm diametre circles in your pastry with a glass or a special round pastry cutter. Put them on a baking sheet or in mini-tart forms (the tart forms make it easier to keep the fruit well in place) and sprinkle each circle with a teaspoon of sugar. Prick them with a fork an put aside.

Peel the pears, quarter them lengthwise and remove the cores. Cut them into very thin slices (2-3 mm) and place very tightly (overlaying halves of the slices) on your mini-circles. Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or clove and some more sugar.

Bake the tarts until the visible pastry parts are golden brown. (The time depends on your oven and on whether you put them on baking paper or into tart forms).