chocolate almond pear tarts

last night was R's staff Christmas banquet. i'm one of the rare ones who can actually say that they enjoy going to their spouse's staff parties. the other day, R came home from work and told me that he signed up to bring dessert to the potluck party (read: he signed me up to make dessert for the potluck). but i'm not complaining - i've told him that if i have the time, i'd rather make a yummy dessert than bring the bowl of corn. so after my night shift, i came home slept a few hours and then got up to make some deeeelicious tarts. there were so many things i could've made that would have been much much simpler, but i was just dying to make something with almond extract, which is, of course, my favourite flavouring.

this is a recipe that i got from some magazine awhile back. the first time i made them, they were so yummy, but got a little soggy. so this time i modified the recipe and it was better (this time, i just used milk instead of milk & cream, and heated it up with the flour on the stove to cook it and thicken it up. it worked, but then i had to put it outside to cool before i could add the egg, etc. and then after baking them, i had to put them outside again to cool enough the put the cool whip on because i was running out time before the party). and next time, i will modify it some more. here is how i think i'll do it next time....


chocolate almond pear tarts
30  3" tart shells   - prebake for 10 minutes (but don't brown them! they're still going back in the oven)
1  14 oz can of pear halves, drained, sliced. place 2 slices in each tart shell.

beat together:
1/2 C milk
1/2 C 18% cream
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract

mix in a separate bowl:
1/4 C flour
1/4 C ground almonds
1/4 C brown sugar
2/3 C chocolate chips

mix together and fill pie shells. bake for 17-20 min @ 375.

once cooled, garnish with cool whip and toasted almond slivers.

***UPDATE: THE TARTS TURNED OUT GREAT. BUT ONCE AGAIN, THE SHELLS WERE A BIT SOGGY BY THE NEXT DAY. IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE THEM, I'D SUGGEST WHIPPING UP THE FILLING AHEAD OF TIME IF YOU WANT TO, BUT ONLY BAKE THEM ON THE DAY THAT YOU WANT TO EAT THEM OR BRING THEM SOMEWHERE***