Pear Almond Tart Recipe from the Old Country

This pear almond tart is called Barchiglia - a chocolate-glazed almond tart with pear preserves, a traditional Easter dessert from southern Italy.

Jump to:

• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🥣 Making the pastry
• 🥄 Making the marmellata di pere
• 🔪 Making the almond filling
• ⭐ Putting it all together
• 🍫 Chocolate ganache
• 📝 Recipe

Admittedly, this recipe is not my own, but rather from one of my favorite cookbooks, Southern Italian Desserts by Rosetta Costantino. It may not be my recipe, but I’m going to show you how to make it. It is a multi-step process, but I absolutely guarantee it will be well worth it. I brought this dessert to a friend’s house for dinner and everyone went absolutely "nuts" for it and they're begging me to make it again!

The dough for this tart is a short-crust pastry, filled with homemade pear preserves, then filled with a almond-meringue mixture, and finally topped with chocolate ganache. Is your mouth watering yet? Let’s get started!

🧾 Ingredients

Pastry

• All purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Baking powder
• Kosher salt
• Unsalted butter
• Eggs
• Lemon zest

Almond filling

• Blanched almonds
• Eggs
• Granulated sugar
• Cinnamon
• Lemon zest
• Kosher salt

Marmellata di Pere (Pear preserves)

• Ripe pears
• Granulated sugar
• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest

Chocolate ganache

• Heavy cream
• Dark chocolate (60-65% cacao), coarsely chopped

🥣 Making the pastry

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to a food processor and pulse just until mixed together. Add pieces of butter and pulse again until small crumbs form.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and lemon zest.

Then, with the food processor running, slowly add the egg-zest mixture through the feed tube. Mix, then pulse until dough forms around the blades. Pinch dough between your fingers...if it sticks together easily, it’s done.

Roll dough into a ball. Press ball into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. If refrigerated for over 1 hour, let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before attempting to roll it out.

🥄 Making the marmellata di pere

Cut pears into ½” pieces and place in a pot. Stir pears together with sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice, and let rest for 1 hour.  

Once some of the pears juices have released, bring to a boil, then simmer until pears are translucent and syrup is lightly golden, about 45 minutes (215℉ on a candy thermometer).  

Let cool completely. FYI, this will stay good in the fridge for up to a month!

🔪 Making the almond filling

To blanch almonds, drop almonds into boiling water for about 20 seconds, drain, and let dry. Place dried almonds in a food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs.

In a stand mixer, whisk egg yolks and sugar at medium-high until fluffy. Gently mix in cinnamon, lemon zest, and ground almonds until mixed well (it will be very thick, like a paste!). Set aside and clean bowl and whisk for the next step.

In stand mixer, whisk together egg whites and pinch of salt until peaks are firm but not dry. Fold ⅓ of egg whites into almond mixture, then another ⅓, then final ⅓ until all egg whites and almond mixture are folded together.

⭐ Putting it all together

Preheat oven to 350℉. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry dough, place into tart pan, & prick bottom all over with a fork.  

Spread pear preserves over the bottom in an even layer. 

Pour almond filling over top and spread evenly with a spatula. 

Bake until golden and puffed, about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

🍫 Chocolate ganache

The final step is to make a chocolate ganache to spread over the top of the tart.

Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate. Let melt for a minute, then stir to combine until smooth. Let cool until it’s just slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Pour over center of the tart & use a spatula to gently spread it to the edges.

Let stand about 2 hours, to allow the glaze to set, and serve!

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Did you make this Barchiglia recipe? Let us know in the comments below!

📝 Recipe

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