SRC: Fearless Homemaker’s Chocolate Almond Pear Tart

For October’s Secret Recipe Club, I was paired with Amy of Fearless Homemaker. Amy lives in Nashville, has a super cute daughter and tons of cute aprons!

Amy has TONS of delicious recipes like Bacon-Wrapped Manchego + Mango Chutney-Stuffed Dates, Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Garlic, Bete Noire (Flourless Chocolate Cake), Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars and Chocolate Avocado Pudding.

I also made her One Pot Tomato Basil Chicken Pasta but didn’t have the opportunity to take photos, so I also made her Chocolate Almond Pear Tart.

The tart turned out really well and in my not-so humble opinion, is a perfect fall dessert! Mr. Bean kept commenting how good it smelled while I was making it and while it was baking and the end product definitely didn’t disappoint! It was super tasty and had a perfect light texture!

Since it’s naturally gluten free, I only made a few modifications. I used almond flour instead of grinding whole blanched almonds and reduced the amount of sugar to 2/3 c. from 3/4c.

Gluten Free Chocolate Almond Pear Tart

Scant 1 c. ofAlmond Meal/Flour
2/3 c. sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 c. dairy free margarine (or butter) + extra for pan
1 /3 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pears
Lemon Juice
2 tbsp. Apple Jelly

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9in removable bottom tart pan with margarine.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, mix together the almond flour and sugar.
3. Add eggs, margarine, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.
4. Scrape into tart into pan and smooth out.
5. Peel pears and cut into 12 pieces. Rub with lemon juice to prevent discolouration.
6. Arrange pear slices on chocolate mixture, so they slightly overlap. Don’t press in.
7. Place on baking sheet and cook for 45-50 minutes until tart is puffy and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the chocolate mixture comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Let cool completely.
8. Heat jelly in microwave or stove until liquified. Gently brush pears with jelly. Let set for at least 20 minutes.
9. Remove tart from pan and serve.
10. Enjoy!

What is your favourite non-pumpkin fall dessert?

SRC: One Lovely Life’s Fall Fruit Pie

Can’t decide whether you want pie or crisp? How about make both! For November’s Secret Recipe Club, I made One Lovely Life’s Fall Fruit Pie. Emily had TONS of beautiful and delicious looking recipes – it was so hard for me to choose just one to make!

Obviously I changed things a bit as I can’t eat gluten. I made an almond flour crust (that I apparently cooked too much – user error on my part!) and used a mixture of almond and brown rice flour for the topping and brown rice flour in the pie itself. I also used less sugar as my apples and pears were quite sweet and no cinnamon so that my mom could eat it.

I quite enjoyed this pie – the topping makes it especially fabulous! I thinking I would love to make it again but with an actually nice pie crust that isn’t overcooked. I really like how this pie had both apples and pears – it’s like the best of both worlds!

As per Ground Cherry’s request, here is the recipe I used for the topping:

1/3 c. cold Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread
1/3 – 1/2 c. sucanat, ground into a fine powder
1/2 c. GF oatmeal
1/4 c. each of almond flour and brown rice flour
1/4 c. chopped almonds
1/4 tsp. salt

If you have some time, do go over and check out some of Emily’s recipes!

Also shared at: Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays and Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Quick, Easy and Healthy Vegan Snack!

I’ve had to get a bit more creative with snacks on the Daniel Fast. Over the last week, I have realized that I truly am a protein person, so having healthy, protein and fibre rich snacks work the best to keep me from being hungry and from overeating. (It is a fast, after all!)

Last week I made some crackers and I’m just finishing them up. I added a bit too much salt to mine, so I needed something sweet to balance the taste. Obviously, my usual jam or marmalade fix wouldn’t work. We had a bunch of pears from a box of produce we got that need to be used up, so was a good solution! Apples, Nectarines or most other non-citrus tree fruit would work as well!

Quick, Easy and Healthy Snack

1 Pear
Nut Butter (I used all natural peanut butter)
Crackers

1. Cut pears into quarters and cut out core. Slice into halves or thirds (depending on how thick you want them to be.)
2. Spread about a tablespoon of nut butter onto each cracker.
3. Place a slice of pear on each cracker.
4. Enjoy this quick and healthy snack!

What do you normally snack on?

Submitted to this week’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.

Gluten Free Pear Clafoutis

I wanted to make cupcakes yesterday for November’s Go Ahead Honey it’s Gluten Free challenge, however I learned that I had already missed the deadline. (Sad day!) I was still keen to bake something, so I thought that I would try something new from one of my newer cookbooks: Gluten Free Gourmet Desserts and Baked Goods. (Or you can see a Google Book Copy.) Everything seriously looks so delicious in this book – I bought it because of the pictures, not the recipes. It also taught me that gourmet == french cuisine. I must live under a rock as I didn’t know that before.

One delightful looking picture caught my interest: something called Pear Clafoutis. I had no idea what clafoutis was – the author gives it the translation of fruit cobbler. Wikipedia gives a better answer:

Clafoutis is a baked French dessert that is typically made by baking fresh fruit (traditionally cherries) and a batter, halfway between a Yorkshire pudding/pancake batter and a custard ^[1], in a baking dish. – Wikipedia

And what can I say? Regardless of how one describes it, it was delicious. And very simple!

Gluten Free Pear Clafoutis

2/3 c. each of almond flour, brown sugar and rice flour
3 eggs
1 c. rice milk (I used Ryza)
3 pears, peeled and sliced
Sprinkle of cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400C.
2. Oil a glass or earthenware cake or loaf pan. (I used a glass loaf pan)
3. Combine almonds, sugar and rice flour in a bowl.
4. Add eggs.
5. Mix in rice milk, a little at a time.
6. Fold fruit into batter.
7. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle cinnamon on top.
8. Bake for 30-45 minutes until set.

I’m not sure if you’re supposed to eat it warm or cold, but both tasted good!