Spiced Pear Tart — red-wine pears in spiced almond cream

i. Origin & history

This tart brings together two classic French preparations. The first is poires au vin rouge, pears poached in sweetened, spiced red wine, a dessert long associated with the wine regions of Burgundy and Beaujolais, where both pears and red wine were everyday produce. Cooks would poach whole pears slowly until they turned the colour of the wine, then serve them cold in their reduced syrup — a dessert that is still a standard of French bistros and home cooking in autumn.

The second is the almond-cream tart, of which the most famous pear version is the tarte Bourdaloue, created in Paris in the nineteenth century with vanilla-poached pears. The spiced pear tart is essentially a Bourdaloue made with wine-poached pears and a warmly spiced filling — a combination that has become popular in French and European baking as a winter and Christmas dessert.

The pairing of pears with warm spices is old and widespread in northern and central Europe. Mulled wine — vin chaud in France, Glühwein in Germany and Austria — is flavoured with the same cinnamon, clove, star anise and citrus, and is the scent of Alsatian and German Christmas markets. Swiss and southern German bakers make Birnbrot, a spiced loaf of dried pears and nuts wrapped in bread dough, and pears in spiced syrup are a traditional winter preserve across the region.

The tart has no single inventor and no fixed recipe; it is a modern combination of these traditions, made in homes and pastry shops from October through to the New Year, when pears are at their best and spices feel most welcome.

ii. Why the pears are poached in wine first

Raw pears placed straight into almond cream release a lot of water as they bake, which makes the filling soggy around them, and their flavour stays mild. Poaching solves both problems. It partly cooks the pears so they finish tender in the oven, drives some water out of them and replaces it with sugar syrup, and seasons them all the way through.

Red wine adds three things. Its pigments (anthocyanins) colour the outer layer of the pear a deep ruby red; the colour penetrates only a few millimetres, so when the poached halves are sliced, each slice shows a red rim around a pale centre, which looks beautiful in the finished tart. Its acidity helps the pears keep their shape: acid slows the breakdown of pectin in the fruit's cell walls, so wine-poached pears stay firmer than pears poached in plain syrup. And its tannins and fruit give depth to the spices.

The choice of pear matters. Use fruit that is ripe enough to be fragrant but still firm — Conference, Bosc or Williams (Bartlett) pears picked just before full ripeness. Very ripe pears collapse into mush in the hot wine. Letting the pears cool in the wine, ideally overnight, deepens their colour and flavour considerably.

After poaching, the wine is reduced to a glossy syrup. As the water evaporates, the sugar concentrates and the syrup thickens, becoming a dark, spiced glaze that is brushed over the hot tart. It gives the finished tart a shine and an intense mulled-wine flavour.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 10 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 200 g plain flour, for the pastry
• 70 g icing sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 110 g cold unsalted butter, diced, for the pastry
• 1 egg, for the pastry
• 4 firm, ripe pears, peeled, halved and cored
• 500 ml fruity red wine
• 100 g caster sugar, for poaching
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 4 cloves
• 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 1 strip orange peel
• 100 g unsalted butter, very soft, for the almond cream
• 100 g caster sugar, for the almond cream
• 100 g ground almonds
• 2 eggs, for the almond cream
• 15 g plain flour, for the almond cream
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cardamom
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• 20 g flaked almonds

Choose a fruity, inexpensive red wine such as a Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Merlot or Grenache; heavily oaked or very tannic wines can taste bitter when reduced. For an alcohol-free version, poach the pears in red grape juice or blackcurrant juice with a squeeze of lemon and halve the sugar. Whole spices give a clean, clear flavour to the poaching liquid; ground spices go in the almond cream, where they distribute evenly. The pastry can be swapped for good shop-bought sweet shortcrust.

iv. Method

1. Put the wine, 100 g sugar, whole spices and orange peel in a saucepan just large enough to hold the pears. Bring to a simmer, add the pear halves and cover with a circle of baking paper. Poach gently for 12–20 minutes, depending on ripeness, until a knife slides in with slight resistance. Cool in the wine, ideally overnight in the fridge.
2. For the pastry, rub the flour, icing sugar, salt and cold butter to fine crumbs, add the egg and bring together into a dough. Flatten, wrap and chill for 1 hour.
3. Roll the pastry to 3 mm and line a 23–24 cm loose-bottomed tart tin. Prick and chill for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F), fan 160 °C. Blind-bake with paper and beans for 15 minutes, then remove them and bake for 5 minutes more.
4. Lift the pears from the wine and pat them dry. Strain the wine into a wide pan and boil for 10–15 minutes until reduced to about 100 ml of thick, glossy syrup.
5. For the almond cream, beat the soft butter and sugar until smooth, then beat in the ground almonds, eggs one at a time, flour and ground spices. Spread in the pastry case.
6. Slice each pear half crosswise into thin slices, keeping the shape, then fan it slightly and lift it onto the almond cream with a palette knife, narrow ends to the centre. Press in gently and scatter the flaked almonds between the pears.
7. Bake for 35–40 minutes, until the almond cream is puffed, golden and set around the pears and springs back when pressed.
8. Brush the hot tart generously with the reduced wine syrup. Cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Use firm pears. Soft, ripe pears fall apart in the wine. Fruit that is fragrant but still firm holds its shape through poaching and baking.
• Poach the day before. An overnight rest in the wine gives deeper colour and flavour and leaves you only the tart to make on the day.
• Dry the pears well. Wet pears leak wine into the almond cream, leaving purple, soggy patches. Pat them dry with kitchen paper.
• Watch the syrup as it reduces. Once it starts to thicken it can catch and burn quickly. It is ready when it coats a spoon like runny honey.
• Go lightly on cloves. Four whole cloves are plenty; more makes the tart medicinal.
• Do not overfill with almond cream. It rises around the pears; leave a couple of millimetres below the rim.

vi. Variations

For a lighter, more classic tart, poach the pears in vanilla syrup instead and leave out the spices — this is the Parisian tarte Bourdaloue. A white-wine version poaches the pears in sweet white wine with vanilla and ginger, giving golden pears. Replace the almonds with ground hazelnuts for a nuttier, deeper filling, or add chopped dark chocolate to the almond cream, a nod to the classic pear-and-chocolate poire Belle-Hélène. Port, or a mix of wine and crème de cassis, makes a richer poaching liquid.

For other autumn tarts and fruit desserts, see the spiced pumpkin tart, the fig and honey tart and the French flaugnarde. Further afield, the Austrian Apfelstrudel and the Polish szarlotka show the same love of fruit and warm spice in central Europe.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve the tart warm or at room temperature, with crème fraîche, lightly whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or a spoonful of mascarpone. Any leftover wine syrup can be drizzled around the plate. It is a natural dessert for autumn dinners, Christmas and New Year, and pairs well with a glass of port or a late-harvest wine.

Keep the tart covered at room temperature on the day it is baked, then in the fridge for up to 3 days; bring it back to room temperature before serving. The pears can be poached up to 3 days ahead and kept in their wine in the fridge, and the pastry case blind-baked a day ahead. The baked tart freezes for up to a month, well wrapped; thaw at room temperature and warm briefly in a low oven.

ix. More from French

• Pear Tart — tarte Bourdaloue
• Almond Tart — tarte aux amandes
• Fig and Honey Tart — figs on almond cream
• Spiced Pumpkin Tart — pumpkin custard tart
• Apfelstrudel — Viennese apple strudel
• Szarlotka — Polish apple cake