Chocolate Pear Tart

Ingredients for the crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 16 pieces
1 cold egg, lightly beaten

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Ingredients for the filling
3 ripe pears
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cups of heavy cream
1/4 sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or the seeds from one vanilla bean
confectioners sugar for sprinkle

Preparing the crust:
Mix together flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut butter into very small chunks. Add it to the dry ingredients and pulse it in a food processor so that butter and flour mix together. Add eggs and pulse the food processor again.
A dough will form. Take it out of the food processor and work it with hands on the kitchen counter. Knead the dough for a couple minutes until the crumbly mixture is nicely incorporated.

Press the dough into a tart pan. Place the tart pan in the freezer for 30 minutes.

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Preparing the filling:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Peel, core and cut the pear into quarters. Cook it in a microwave until they are just about tender. Take out and let it cool.

In a double broiler melt the chocolate with cream. Whisk thoroughly so that it all incorporates well. Add sugar to the chocolate and mix it till the sugar dissolves.
Set aside to cool.

Whisk egg and egg yolk in a mixer. Add vanilla. Pour chocolate mixture into the egg and mix on medium low.

Arrange the pears on tart crust, pour the custard into the pan carefully not to pour on top of the pears. Bake for 40-50 minutes; when the chocolate custard is puffed and set, its done. It should be a little firm to touch and slightly cracked from the edges.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.