My friend Chris originally made Pear and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart for one of our book club meetings and it has been a favourite of mine ever since.
Even in the winter, you can purchase 2 pears for a reasonable cost, let them just ripen at room temperature for a couple of days and then prepare this dessert.
It will make you think that summer is just around the corner!
Pear and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart
Pear and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart is a delicious all season dessert with a balsamic vinegar flavoured cream cheese, in an oatmeal based crust.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup brown sugar - packed
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Filling
- 1 pkg cream cheese, 8 oz or 250 gm - at room temperature. If the cream cheese is just out of the fridge, put it in a microwavable container and microwave it for 1 minute at 20% power.
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ripe pears - cored and peeled and sliced into 8 wedges
- ¼ cup chopped pecans or almonds
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉
- Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add butter and mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9 in (23 cm) tart tin (with removable bottom) or spring form pan. Bake for 7 minutes and then cool for 8 minutes
- Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, vinegar and vanilla; spread onto the crust.
- Arrange the pears over the cream cheese mixture and sprinkle evenly with the remaining oat mixture and nuts. Return to the oven and bake for 30 min. Let cool on a rack to room temp or serve slightly warm (I have also made this without nuts for those people with allergies and it tastes fine)
Peach and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart
- Replace the pears with fresh peaches and substitute White Peach Balsamic for regular Balsamic Vinegar. If using nuts, only use almonds.
Blueberry and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart
- Replace the pears with enough fresh blueberries to cover the top (about 1 cup) and substitute Blueberry flavoured Balsamic Vinegar for the regular Balsamic Vinegar. No nuts are used in this variation.