Andy's Pear Tart

This is an absolute classic and such a delish recipe! It's a must-have for nearly every event in my family. It's adapted from a Kraft recipie my mom found ages ago!

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Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 Stick) Butter - softened

1 cup Granulated sugar - divided into 3rds

1 cup Flour

Pinch of Salt

1 pkg (8 oz) Cream Cheese - room temp

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 large Bosc pears - peeled, cored, thinly sliced

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Allspice

1/4 cup sliced Almonds (optional topping)

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A few things before we begin

• You'll need a springform pan to bake this. You can find them in most baking aisles, but this one is my favorite.

• A stand mixer will make this exponentially easier, but an electric hand mixer will work, just take a bit longer.

• The cream cheese will blend better when closer to room temp, however if you don't have time to set it out, it will still bake just fine! The cream cheese, egg, sugar mixture will just be a little clumpy when poured into the pan.

• I add a little less than 1/3 cup of sugar to the sliced pears, I find you don't need all that much to coat them and anything more can over-macerate the pears.

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Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Beat butter, 1/3 cup of sugar, pinch of salt in mixer until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix well, it'll have a crumbly, sandy texture. Spread firmly into springform pan, about 1in up the sides. Make sure the lock on the side of the pan is in place before adding.

Beat cream cheese and 1/3 cup of sugar in the same bowl until well combined(no need to clean out any flour/butter/sugar bits remaining). Add egg and vanilla, mix well. I like to let this beat while I prepare the pears.

Wash, peel, and core pears. Slice thinly. In a small bowl, add just under 1/3 of the remaining sugar. Toss with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Add pears and toss until coated. Add more cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice as needed.

Pour cream cheese mixture into pan and smooth so it's even. Arrange pears atop cream cheese layer. Add almonds, if you'd like.

Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 F and continue baking for 25 minutes. Cool and loosen tart from pan. Transfer to plate, cover with seran wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

I like to add a paper towel between to tart and seran wrap to keep moisture from gathering while cooling.