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It’s another Cozy Mystery Cooking Club recipe! These salted caramel pear tarts combine three amazing things- salted caramel (duh), pears, and a biscoff cookie crust!

Have you had biscoff cookies before? Or cookie butter from trader joes? They are literally amazing.

When we decided our theme for the month would be pies, I immediately knew I wanted to do something with a cookie crumb crust.

I’ll admit that I am not much of a pie baker! I struggle with them, and don’t bake them too often. So a cookie crust seemed easier to me! I also went more of the tart route, than pie route, and settled on doing individual tarts.

Once I decided on the biscoff cookie crust, I wanted to go with two fall flavors to round it out…salted caramel, and pears! The three flavors go so perfectly with each other.

This is, as I mentioned, my Cozy Mystery Cooking Club recipe for our current read, Magic in Christmas River by Meg Muldoon! If you haven’t read any of the Christmas River cozy mystery series yet, I highly recommend it.

I loved this book and had a lot of fun reading it- I’ll be going back to read the others now!

In this series, our main character is Cinnamon Peters, a pie baker. Hence, our pie theme!

Now, as I mentioned above, I am not much of a pie baker! But in the spirit of our pie theme, I wanted to share a post from my friends over at The Grumpy Olive…all about pies!

The Grumpy Olive site has so many amazing pie recipes to try, and this post with tips for making perfectly delicious pies is so helpful. Check it out for your own pie making activities! And while you’re there, definitely don’t forget to look at their wonderful pie recipes!

To see how to make these salted caramel pear tarts, keep on reading below… And don’t forget to check out the Cozy Mystery Cooking Club page, where you can get all the deets on our current read, our past reads and recipes, a link to join the group, and our next virtual meeting details!

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How to Make Salted Caramel Pear Tarts

What Ingredients Do You Need to Make Salted Caramel Pear Tarts?

For the salted caramel:

18 soft caramels
1 tbsp water or whiskey
2 tbsp heavy cream or half & half
½ tsp salt

For the crusts:

8 oz. biscoff cookies, crushed into fine crumbs
4 tbsp powdered sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

3 ripe Bartlett pears, cut into small slices (about ¼ inch thick)
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Now a few notes…first off, this caramel recipe was slightly adapted from my good friend Linda from Sip + Sanity’s recipe for caramel sauce.

I originally tried to make caramel from scratch. And you guys, it was NOT going well. I don’t know why I couldn’t do it…but 18 batches of caramel later I was ready to pull my hair out!

Linda came through and saved the day with her quick and easy caramel sauce using soft caramels. I used Werther’s brand, just because I like them. I also used whiskey for the caramel but you can definitely use water!

The biscoff cookies, I find typically in the international or specialty foods aisle of my grocery store.

When you make your tart crusts, it’s a good idea to cut out rounds of parchment paper to stick on the bottom. This will help you remove the crusts after they have cooled!

A few more notes…

The pears should be ripe, but not like ready to fall apart ripe, if you know what I mean! Depending on how ripe they are, it may take more or less time to cook the filling, so keep an eye on them.

I mention this in the recipe, but make sure each component of your tarts is cooled before assembling! The tart crusts are somewhat delicate and if you add warm liquids into it, they may start to soften or disintegrate.

Placing your caramel in the fridge is the best option, and if you can, place your baked tart shells in the fridge too, to cool completely.

And finally, use a slotted spoon to add the pears to the tarts. They will be syrupy, and you don’t want tons of extra liquid going into the tarts or the caramel won’t set!

What Equipment Do You Need?

Bowls, plus a microwavable one
Food processor, blender, or rolling pin to crush the biscoff cookies into crumbs
Measuring spoons
Fork, spoon, or whisk
Cutting board and knife
Saucepan
Oven
Parchment paper
Individual tart pans with a removable bottom (4 inch is what I used)
Slotted spoon

You want to crush the biscoff cookies into fine crumbs, and I find a food processor to be the easiest way to do this. But you can use a blender or place the cookies in a bag and use a rolling pin to crush them fine.

These salted caramel pear tarts with a biscoff cookie crust are a perfect fall flavored treat! They take a little bit of work upfront, but they are easy to assemble once the prep is done.

I hope you enjoy!

Have you made individual tarts before? Let me know in the comments- this is the first time I have made them!

xoxo

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Salted Caramel Pear Tarts with Biscoff Cookie Crust

Individual pear tarts, with salted caramel and pear filling, encased in a biscoff cookie crust.

Print Recipe

Prep Time:1 20

Cook Time:10

Total Time:1 30

Ingredients

For the salted caramel:

18 soft caramels
1 tbsp water or whiskey
2 tbsp heavy cream or half & half
½ tsp salt

For the crusts:

8 oz biscoff cookies crushed into fine crumbs
4 tbsp powdered sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter melted

For the filling:

3 ripe bartlett pears cut into small slices (about ¼ inch thick)
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Instructions

Make the salted caramel:

Unwrap 18 caramels and place them in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tbsp of water (or whiskey) and microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, until the caramels are melted. Add 2 tbsp of heavy cream or half & half. Add the salt, stir until smooth and creamy. Set aside to cool for a few minutes and then place in the fridge while you make the crusts and filling.

Make the crusts:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Cut out parchment circles to fit the bottoms of your tart pans, and lay it on the bottoms to make the removal of tarts easier. Place the tart pans on a small baking sheet to bake them on.
Mix together the cookie crumbs, powdered sugar, and melted butter until the crumbs are moistened and stick together. Divide the mixture evenly among the 6 tart pans and press the crumbs into the bottom and sides to form a crust about ¼ inch thick. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool completely.

Make the filling:

Combine the sliced pears, brown sugar, and the ground spices in a medium saucepan. Stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the pears are cooked through and syrupy, about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temp.

Assemble the tarts:

Once your tart crusts have cooled completely, carefully remove each one from their pan. Place on a tray. Check on your caramel- it should be cool and thickened. If it’s even slightly warm, it can disintegrate the crusts, so make sure it’s cool!
Spoon the cooled caramel sauce evenly into each tart crust, about 1 ½ tbsp for each. Next, get your pears. Use a slotted spoon, to reduce the amount of extra pear juice going in the tarts, and carefully fill the remaining space of each tart with pears.
Place the tarts in the fridge to cool all the way and set the caramel. Enjoy!
Can store the leftovers in the fridge.

Course: Dessert

Keyword: baked, dessert, fall, holiday

Servings: 6 tarts

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