Prettiest pear tart ever! This gluten-free pear tart looks fancy but it's actually super-easy to make with poached pears, silky crème fraîche custard, and almond flour press-in crust. Though it requires a few different components, all are simple to make and can be done ahead.
For a more traditional beige-colored pear tart, use the vanilla version of the tart crust and poach the pears in tea or white wine. Thanks to Bi-Rite Market for sponsoring this post!
If you're looking for an impressive dessert to make with wine poached pears, you're going to love this tart. It looks fancy, but it's actually quite streamlined to make. I especially love this tart around the fall and winter holidays, where it makes a nice change from pumpkin desserts and apple recipes.
And I'm not the only one. Here's what one happy reader had to say:
5-Star Reader Review
“I made this for Christmas Day dessert, and it was so delicious! My family absolutely LOVED it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!”
—Reema Lad
Components
The cocoa almond tart crust comes together in a food processor in minutes, gets pressed into a pan, and baked, no chilling required. This recipe comes straight from my book Alternative Baker. It's a versatile recipe that I've used for goat cheese cheesecake – a reader favorite around the holidays!
The wine-poached pears take 30 minutes to make, start to finish, and can be made days or weeks ahead of time. I flavor them with sweet baking spices and orange zest to enhance the flavors.
The custard filling, made with crème fraîche, egg, and sugar, gets whisked together and layered in the baked crust. Slice and fan the pears over the custard and bake.
Just like that you have an impressive dessert that looks like it came from a fancy French bakery, but you actually made it yourself at home. Read on for the method!
Ingredients
- Gluten-free tart crust forms the base of this tart. Go with the cocoa version, shown here, or us the vanilla version for a more classic pear tart.
- Poached pears in red wine (shown here) make a pretty filling. For a more classic tart, poach the pears in white wine or tea instead.
- Crème fraîche and heavy cream make up the custard filling.
- Egg and GF AP flour or sweet rice flour thicken and set the filling, absorbing juice from the pears.
- Sugar adds sweetness and salt sharpens the flavors.
Poached Pear Tart Tutorial
This tart requires a few easy steps, all of which are simple to execute and can be made ahead. This makes one 9-inch round tart, about 10 servings.
Once you've poached the pears and parbaked the crust (about 30 minutes for each step), the rest of the tart comes together in a snap. Leave time to let the tart cool for about an hour before you plan to serve it.
It's best the same day of baking when the crust is most crisp, but it can be chilled overnight if need be.
Make-Ahead
This tart requires 3 different components. Here's how to make them ahead to ease day-of prep:
- The tart crust can be shaped, parbaked, and stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to several months.
- The pears can be poached and refrigerated for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to several months.
- The custard filling can be made and refrigerated for up to 1 day.
Pear Custard Tart For Everyone
This gluten-free pear tart is great for dinner parties and potlucks since it can be made earlier in the day, and each component can be made a day or two in advance to ease day-of prep.
A bite of crumbly cocoa crust gives way to cool custard and warmly spiced fruit. Sweetness is offset by bitter cocoa, earthy wine, and bright spices. I hope you love this sophisticated dessert as much as I've loved sharing the recipe!
Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this gluten-free pear tart, I’d love to see. Tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.
Gluten-Free Poached Pear Tart with Almond Cocoa Crust
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Crust:
- 1 gluten-free tart crust (cocoa variation shown here; parbaked)
Filling:
- 1 recipe poached pears (red wine version shown here)
- ¼ cup (50 g) organic granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons (30 g) Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 flour or sweet white rice flour
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream
- ¼ cup (60 ml) crème fraiche (or more heavy cream)
- 1 tablespoon organic granulated sugar, for sprinkling
For Serving (optional)
- whipped crème fraîche
- reduced pear poaching liquid
Instructions
Crust
- Make the almond flour tart crust and parbake as instructed. Leave the oven preheated to 325ºF, and leave the tart crust on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any drips.
Filling
- Poach the pears and let them cool until you can handle them. Reduce the poaching liquid to serve with the tart if you like.
- Slice the poached, cooled pears lengthwise ⅛ to ¼-inch thick.
- To make the custard filling, in a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt. Whisk in the egg, then the cream and crème fraîche until smooth.
- Pour the custard into the bottom of the baked tart shell. Gently fan the sliced pears out over the top of the custard. Sprinkle the 1 tablespoon sugar over the pears.
Bake
- Bake the tart at 325ºF until the custard is puffed and set, 30-40 minutes.
- Remove the tart from the oven and let cool until warm, then release the sides of the pan and let the tart cool completely, 1-2 hours and up to 4 hours.
Serve
- Serve the tart at room temperature, or chill for up to 2 days. The crust will be more crisp if served within a few hours of baking.
- Cut into wedges and serve, drizzled with the reduced poaching liquid and topped with a dollop of whipped crème fraîche, if you like.
Emily says
I am just curious about the texture of the crust. Is it more of a crumbly granular texture or does it have a more structured texture? How does it hold together with the very wet filling ingredients? Thank you! It looks absolutely AMAZING! I'm having a hard time choosing between your desserts for a holiday dinner treat!
Alanna says
Great question. The texture is like a chocolate shortbread cookie. It holds together well, and stands up to the wet ingredients for a good 2 days, and it has a meltingly tender texture when you bit into it. With the buttery texture, deep chocolate taste, and hit of salt, people go kinda crazy when they taste it for the first time. :) I hope that helps! Please let me know what you end up trying or if you want any advice to help narrow things down!
Suzanne says
This gave me goosebumps, honestly. I can't believe how easy it apPEARs to be! *wink* get it?
Thank you for sharing. This would be a spectacular holiday treat.
Alanna says
Haha, the way to my heart is through silly puns, how did you know?! ;) Thanks so much for the sweet words!
Jonathan says
Hi - is there a way to turn a tart recipe to work for a pie pan? I don't have a tart pan. btw - your Alternative Baker book is top-notch :)
Alanna says
Great questions! You can absolutely make this in a 9-inch pie pan. It might be a tad more challenging to remove from the pan but it should work as written, no changes needed. I've made this crust in a pie pan for this recipe and it works great!
Sara says
I love the look of this recipe, but I'm a teetotaler and I was wondering if there was a way to make this without using any alcohol. I know that the alcohol content cooks out, but I can't even stand the taste of wines or beers cooked into food. I'm not a fan of the flavor it gives, so I always try to find alternatives. Any suggestions?
Alanna says
Absolutely! You could try apple cider, pomegranate juice, or cranberry juice in place of the wine. :)
Sara says
Does that work for all recipes that have alcohol? Even ones where you cook with alcohol? Or is that just for baking? Plus, would that also be the alternatives for this recipe only? You have a few other recipes I'd like to try but they also include a type of alcohol in them. Like your pie recipes with walnuts and pecans that use Bourbon or Nocino? Either way, I was wondering what you would replace for something like that. Or if there even is a guide about how to replace alcohol that you would use to help you figure out which liquid works best with specific flavors or different textures, etc.
Any thoughts?
Alanna says
Hm, there are probably guides online (let me know if you find a good one!), but in general you can just replace the alcoholic liquid with another liquid that you like the taste of, or sometimes you can just leave it out entirely. For those nut pies, you could just omit the booze, or coffee could be a nice flavor to add in there if you like coffee. Feel free to experiment, most recipes are pretty forgiving!
Missy says
Most fruit juices can be a substitute for wine no problem! For the booze you can use "flavor extracts" instead like buttered rum flavor! Lorranne makes hundreds of flavors! For whiskey or bourbon I tend to use a dark flavored coffee instead. For example to replace Captain morgans spiced rum I'll use dark spiced/cinnamon coffee (cooled off) This question is old but I posted in case anyone is looking for ideas
Alanna says
Oh I love these ideas! Thank you so much for sharing!
Victoria says
¡Que receta tan atractiva! Me ha costado entenderla porque mi ordenador no hace una buena traducción. Pero seguro que la hago en estas fiestas. Me ha gustado mucho las indicaciones que das para poder ir haciendo con días de antelación. Ya te cuento que tal me sale. Un saludo desde las Islas Canarias.
Sabrina says
I have to check out Bi-Rite, wow, gorgeous pears after their wine soaking, love the crust too, thank you for this beautiful tart
Alanna says
Such a great market, you'll love it! Thanks for reading and for the kind words.
Missy says
Delicious!!! I had a bunch of pluots far from being ripe so I used those instead of pears! Sliced first and mulled about 10 minutes! Normally in this type of dessert you wouldn't be able to taste the fruit as much but not so with this! The custard is so mild it let's the fruit shine! Reduced sauce A+ I only had Raspberry wine used that! I did not make your crust as I'm not gluten free I made another that was 70/30 whole wheat and almond but I will try yours next time! Custard Tart +sauce + sweetened creme fraiche = heaven! TY!!
I happened to have a high quality cream and homemade creme fraiche...if you have the time I highly recommend making your own!
Alanna says
This variation sounds delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Reema Lad says
I made this for Chrismas Day dessert, and it was so delicious! My family absolutely LOVED it. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Alanna says
Aw I'm so glad it was a hit! What a special dessert to share with your family. Thanks for the note and rating!
Aashna says
This tart was a huge hit at our New Years Eve party! I used mulled cranberry juice instead of mulled wine, and I used normal flour with almond flour as I'm not gluten-free. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste to the custard because my family has more of a sweet tooth. With the modifications I was nervous it wouldn't turn out well, but it was great! Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe :)
Alanna says
Those modifications sound divine – I'm so glad they worked well and that the tart was a hit!
Iso bel says
This looks wonderful! Will this keep for a couple of days?
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yes it will! Thank you so much. Please let me know if you make it!
Yvette says
Is it possible to switch out the heavy cream with coconut milk in this recipe?
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Great question! I haven't tried this recipe with coconut milk instead of cream, but I've used coconut milk in quiche and it worked beautifully, so I think it would work here too. Coconut cream might be even closer with a higher fat content, if you happen to have some. Please let us all know how it goes if you try it!
Yvette says
I tried it! I ended up poaching the pears in Earl Grey and replaced the heavy cream and cream fraiche with canned coconut cream. Turned out delicious! I especially love how delicate the sweetness in this recipe is. Not too much...just right!
Alanna Taylor-Tobin says
Yay, I'm so glad you liked it! I can imagine how lovely the Earl Grey would pair with the coconut cream since they both have those floral notes to them. Yum!! Thanks very much for the feedback!