Whisk together the dry ingredients. Work in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and the butter forms pea-sized granules in the flour. You can use your hands or a food processor. If you use food processor, be careful to not over process it with butter.

Drizzle in 4-5 tablespoons of water, stirring gently until everything is evenly moistened; add the final tablespoon of water, if necessary, to make the dough come together. Your dough will look shaggy, crumbly and might look like it won’t form a disc.

Dump the dough into a parchment paper, pat the dough to form into a disk, wrap it, and refrigerate for 10-20 minutes. The goal is to keep the butter still cold inside the dough which will make it flaky when it bakes. You can make the dough in advance and store it for longer time in the freezer. It saves up time specially during holidays.

Take melted butter, sugar, salt, almond meal, almond extract, and halva and whisk until a paste forms. Usually there is an egg in the frangipane, but I kept it eggless. There should be no lumps. Leave it aside.

Remove the skin on pears if you like, you can leave the skin on too. Core the pears and chop them into thin slices; just before the assembly or else they will turn dark.

Pre- heat your oven to 375 F. Take the dough out for just few minutes before rolling. Use some dry flour and roll out your dough, rotating it every few rolls to keep it from sticking. It would be little bit hard to roll at first, but it will come along. Stop when it's about 10 or 11 inches in diameter, or when it's at a thickness that is preferred by you. I prefer very thinly rolled but enough that it can hold the filling.

At any given point, your dough starts sticking too much. You can place it in the refrigerator for few minutes after forming the disc.

Add your almond halva filling. Spread it in an even layer in the middle, leaving sides open. I prefer 1-inch top crust. If you like more top crust, you can leave about 2 inches from disc and keep a broader border.

Place your thinly sliced pears in any shape or pattern you desire. Fold sections of dough on top of the filling, creating a tight seal. This is fun part as you can fold it anyways you like.

You can egg wash the borders of the dough or use cream if you do not eat eggs. I used milk to wash the sides of the crust of the dough. Sprinkle with little bit of granulated cane sugar, almonds and pistachios.