Pear and Cream Cheese Crumble Tart
Print recipe| Inspiration | Originally published in the Hamilton Spectator for pears, modified for other fruit |
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 Tsp baking powder
- 1/4 Tsp salt
- 1 Tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 8 Oz (250 gm) cream cheese (at room temperature. If the cream cheese is just out of the fridge, put it ina microwavable container and microwave it for 1 minute at 20% power.)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tsp vanilla
- 2 ripe pears (cored and peeled and sliced into 8 wedges)
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds or pecans
Directions
| Preheat oven to 350 deg F | |
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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  | |
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Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, vinegar and vanilla; spread onto the crust.  | |
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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. | |