Recipe: Pear Tart with Flaky Quinoa Crust

We've been playing around with fresh fruit tarts as a way to satisfy the sweet tooth without white sugar and bleached flour. This time we made a delicate, flaky crust from Toasted Quinoa Flakes and topped it with ripe pears (most varieties are in season right now). Top your slice with a scoop of coconut milk ice cream, or a simple dusting of powdered sugar. 

 
PearTart.jpg
 

Crust: 

  • 1 cup I Heart Keenwah Toasted Quinoa Flakes, ground into flour in a coffee grinder
  • 1/2 cup white rice flour
  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1 tbsp arrowroot powder
  • sprinkling of sea salt
  • 2/3 cups coconut oil (semi solid, chilled in fridge for 15 minutes)
  • 2-3 tbsp cold water

Topping:

  • 2-3 super ripe pears, unpeeled, cut into 1/4 inch slices
  • 1/3 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. To make the filling, combine pears, coconut sugar, vanilla extract, coconut oil and lemon juice together in a bowl. Let sit and marinate for 15 minutes.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix quinoa flour, rice flour, coconut flour, arrowroot powder by hand.
  4. Add salt and coconut oil and continue to mix.
  5. Slowly add cold water (1 Tbs at a time) until the mixture clumps together clumps like wet sand.
  6. Form a dough with your hands.
  7. Press dough into a fluted pastry tin (9" or smaller). 
  8. Top crust with marinated pears. Pour any remaining liquid from the marinade on top of pears.
  9. Bake for 40 minutes.
  10. Allow to cool on counter to room temperature and then store in fridge. 

Garnish with coconut cream, ice cream or just plain powdered sugar (all optional). 

Note: This vegan and gluten-free crust is a tad bit more fragile than a classic tart crust that would otherwise use butter or wheat flour. Handle with care. 

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