Have you ever had any of those happy accidents, where you improvise something with leftovers and it turns out to be even better than the original recipe? This recipe was just like that.

A few weeks ago, I decided to use poached pear and frangipane as a filling for the Daring Bakers danish braid, and although it was pretty good, the pear flavour was a bit hidden in all that flaky dough. I had some poached pears left, and some leftover frangipane, so I searched the internet for a recipe to use it.

Of course I stumbled upon countless almond-pear tarts, but they all had something in common: a shortcrust pastry base. And after all that danish pastry making, I didn’t feel like doing any more dough. I remembered I had bought some really cute heart-shaped silicone moulds, so I decided to make individual little tarts, with no crust at all. I didn’t know how the frangipane would hold up, so I added a bit more flour to the mix to be safe.

In the end, the mini tartelettes turned out a success. I ended up repeating the recipe a couple more times, because my dad has a sweet tooth and kept asking for more.

Frangipears

(enough for 10 tartelettes or one big tart)

Filling

1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup ground almonds
3 tablespoons all purpose flour

Topping

5 pears
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Water to cover
Slivered roasted almonds for decoration

Place the pears in a small saucepan with all the ingredients and add water until about 2cm of the pear top. Simmer on a medium heat until the pears are soft, but not mushy. You might have to keep checking by inserting a knife, as it depends on how ripe they are.

While the pears are cooking, prepare the filling, by creaming the butter and the sugar with a whisk, and beating in the egg and the vanilla extract. Then, add the ground almond and the flour, and whisk until smooth.

Divide the dough into 10 buttered mini tartelette moulds (or heart shaped silicone moulds if you happen to have them). Alternatively, you can pour the dough into a buttered 25cm round pan. Use a spatula to even out the surface.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC. Once the pears are cooked, remove the pears from the liquid, and let it simmer until it looks syrupy and golden. After letting the pears cool down a bit, halve them, remove the core and then slice them thinly. Carefully pick up each half, fan it slightly over your hand and then lay them carefully over the frangipane. If doing a full tart, place every half pear pointy side to the center, as a flower petal.

Brush the pears with the syrup and top with some slivered roast almonds. Bake for about 15minutes, or until the dough starts to brown slightly and the edges of the pears start to golden. Drizzle with the syrup.

Serve either chilled or warm, with some vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream.