pear and speculoos tart

mmmm. hello there. in october i bought a cooking magazine, saveurs. it wasn’t until december that i finally made something from it.

so, i’d like you to meet tarte aux poires et speculoos.

this tart was supposed to have mirabelles (the little yellow plums) in it, but since i live in a place where things out of season are actually difficult to find, i decided to go with what was in season and plentiful: the pear.

and speculoos? what’s that? up here in france and belgium, it’s a thin and crispy spice cookie (usually embossed with gorgeous designs from a wooden mold) that is traditionally eaten for st. nicholas on dec 6th. but due to its tastiness you can find variations of it all year round by different manufactures. the key thing about this cookie is cinnamon and brown sugar. more info about this cookie, its origins, and recipes can be found here and here and here.

then you take this delicious cookie and you mix it with some creamy goodness known as ricotta cheese to form a heavenly base for your pears.

ingredients:

1 sweet tart dough

100g speculoos cookies, crushed*

100g ricotta cheese

1 egg

4 pears, or however many you need

40g sugar

*and if you don’t live in europe, just use any cinnamon or spiced cookie that you like.

recipe by delphine brunet, adapted from p. 43 of the october 2009 issue of saveurs

preheat your oven to 190C/375F

line your tart pan with the dough.

peel your pears. cut them in half. sprinkle them with the sugar in a bowl and set them aside.

mix the crushed speculoos cookies with the ricotta. then add the egg and keep on mixing. spread this mixture on top of the dough in the tart pan to form a nice even layer.

arrange the pears on your tart however you like so it visually pleases you.

bake for about 40 minutes, then eat away!

just leaving you with the lovely profile view!