Lemony Cottage Cheese, Pear and Chocolate Pie

What a miserable day in Montreal today: snow, wind, you couldn't see your facing neighbor and the temperature is supposed to fall from +3 degC this morning to -31 degC tomorrow morning. Should I be happier if I was in Australia with more than 45 degC and fires ravaging part of the country? Not sure...Anyway to beat the bad weather, I decided to bake. I had a recipe in my list that I wanted to try for a while, but when I opened the fridge to get the butter out, I saw the pot of cottage cheese that I bought 10 days ago and these 3 pears winking at me, as if to tell me "we are not going to last forever".... Since I always wanted to try a cheese cake with cottage cheese, this was a perfect opportunity, but I didn't have graham crackers. Always something missing!  I decided to make my  own crust. The rest is history...told below!.

Ingredients
Dough :
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup icing sugar
½ cup butter (softened)
1 tablespoon margarine
1 egg
2 tablespoons sour cream
Zest of half lemon

Topping :
3 pears
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 squares Baker’s style dark chocolate
1 lb cottage cheese
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sour cream
2 teaspoons corn starch
½ cup granulated sugar
Zest of half lemon

11 in (27 cm) pie pan with a removable bottom, if possible.

Directions

1. Mix the flour and baking powder. Make a well in the center and add the sugar, butter and margarine. Rub to obtain a sort of crumble. 
2. Add the egg, sour cream and zest. Mix well. You should have a nice and soft dough. 
3. Roll out and transfer to the pan pressing up the sides. Refrigerate.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 400F (200 C), with the rack in the middle position. 
5. Peel, core and slice the pears not too fine. Add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the pears are tender and the juice evaporated. Remove from the heat. Let cool.
6. Meanwhile put the cottage cheese into a large mixing bowl, add the 2 eggs, sugar, sour cream, corn starch and zest and blend until smooth. 
7. Bake the crust without the filling for 10 minutes. This ‘pre-cooking’ will prevent the crust from being soggy. 
8. While it’s cooking, cut the chocolate in small pieces. By now your crust should be ready. 
9. Fill the tart shell: spread evenly the pears first, then the chocolate and finally cover with the cheese mixture. 
10. Bake until set around 40 minutes. Let cool completely then dust with icing sugar and follow your imagination to decorate.

Notes:

1. The professionals will tell you to refrigerate the dough before rolling it out. I have tried both methods and I didn't see any difference. So I roll it out and then put it in the fridge, this way I can clean the counter and get over with the dough.