Mini Pear Almond Tart

I told B I wanted one for Christmas (with a stipulation that it had to be small). Although I told him to wait til Black Friday for sales, he bought one immediately and had it shipped.
As this mini prep cuisine food processor was just sitting around my apartment, I couldn't not use it. So I opened it up to make the dough for this pear tart. I'm not a very patient person (I was better as a kid, and actually waited til Christmas)

If you make any kind of pastry dough, getting a food processor for that alone is worth it (never mind processing things like vegetables)
 I love almond tarts and pears were a perfect combination for this. Any hard pear will do, but I recommend bosc pears in particular. You can use canned pears, but I do recommend poaching them as it's easy and you can add so much flavor while controlling the sugar. Poaching is basically boiling and simmering anything in a liquid, ranging from eggs to fruit. When you slice the pears yourself, it's so much prettier.

Mini Pear Almond Tart

Ingredients
PEARS
4 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 Bosc pears, peeled

ALMOND CRUST
see recipe for almond tart dough

ALMOND FILLING
2/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

Directions
PEARS: Boil water, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and add pears. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until pears are tender, turning occasionally, about 15 minutes. Let pears cool in syrup and refrigerate (can be made ahead of time).

ALMOND TART DOUGH: prepare as per recipe for almond tart dough  (can be made ahead of time). Once the dough is chilled and ready, preheat the oven to 350 F. Fill your tart pan with chilled dough and bake blind for about 6-8 min.
ALMOND FILLING: Grind almonds in a food processor. Blend in flour, sugar, and butter and then mix in egg. Transfer filling to medium bowl. Cover and chill at least 3 hours (can be made ahead of time).

ASSEMBLY: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F.

Take your cooled prebaked almond tart crusts and spread almond filling evenly in the crust. Remove the pear stem, cut each in half lengthwise, and remove out the core. Cut each half crosswise into thin slices. Line the pears on the almond filling so they overlap.

Bake tart until golden, about 55 minutes for a large tart (for my mini ones about 20 min). Cool tart in pan on rack and serve at room temperature, Enjoy!