We sampled these excellent pear tarts, sweet with almond paste, crispy with puff pastry, at Mountain Springs Lodge in Leavenworth, WA. At a Black Box Wine pairing event, the lodge’s chef, Thomas Obregon, paired these with Black Box’s not-too-sweet riesling and it was a terrific combo.

When we tested this recipe in the realfoodtraveler.com kitchen, we added some Black Box Columbia Valley Riesling to the poaching water and the wine gave the pears even more flavor.

Recipe courtesy Chef Thomas Obregon and Mountain Springs Lodge www.mtsprings.com

Makes 6 individual tarts

3 medium Bartlett pears firm but ripe
4 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean split
6 5-inch squares puff pastry
3 Tablespoons almond paste
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons room temperature butter (unsalted) cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise, remove the stem and seeds. Combine the water and the 2 cups of sugar in a heavy saucepan. Add the vanilla bean and the pears.

Place the pan over high heat and bring to boil, turn down to simmer. 15 minute or until pears are tender, remove from heat and allow pears to cool in liquid.

On parchment lined sheet pan place puff pastry squares and keep in refrigerator until ready to assemble.

Using a food processor mix almond paste and sugar with several pulses until crumbly beat in butter a little at time until incorporated the add the egg yolk pulse until creamy.

In center of each puff pastry square place a large teaspoon of almond cream remove pears from liquid and dry using clean towel, slice pears lengthwise and fan out over almond cream leaving a border around edge.

Bake at 375 for approximately 50 minutes rotating halfway through.

Check out Chef Thomas’ recipe for Pinot Noir Reduction. It’s terrific on beef or other meats.

Curious about Black Box Wines? Read our full review.