I had this years ago somewhere in Europe but didn’t know how it was called. Time went on and forgot about it until last week. I was looking for a way to get rid of almond flour and stumble on this.This French tart is made with almond custard and pears. It is SO GOOD.
Critics couldn’t even talk, all I got was multiple thumbs up
You need
- 1 pate sucrée ( see recipe here )
- ~6 cup water
- 520gram sugar
- 115g butter
- 115g almond flour
- 3 eggs
- 15g flour
- 3 pears ( Anjou or Bartlet)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 star anise pod
- 1 vanilla bean or 1tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- First, go ahead and prepare the pate sucrée dough. Once you are done, take a bit of butter and lightly grease your pie tin, put some flour in and swirl the tin in order to have flour all over the tin. Then simply flip it over your sink and give it a gentle tap to remove excess flour. You will end up with a tin with a thin coating of flour to prevent any sticking.
- I like to slightly pre-bake the dough, pre-heat the oven at 350F. Place a parchment paper and put some pie weight or beans ( didn’t have any so I use rice ). Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, remove parchment paper. Reserve and let cool
- Next, we want to attack the pears. In a pot put the water and 400g of sugar and bring to a simmer. Stir every now until the sugar is all dissolved. It’s time to add your spices ( cinnamon stick, star anise, vanilla bean, or extract). Peel your pears and squirt some lemon juice on them, make sure they are fully covered this will ensure they don’t turn brown. Now we need to remove the core of the pear, you can use a paring knife, a melon baller, or if you have a metal measuring scoop those work really well. If you arent able to do it, just cut them in half and reduce cooking by 2 minutes.
- Put the pears into the simmering sugar mixture and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, lay some paper towels, and let cool at room temperature.
- Finally, we need to do the frangipane filling. In a stand mixer bowl, cream the butter and slowly add the remaining sugar in, you can add a dash of vanilla extract. For the next step, it’s important not to OVERMIX, mix until blended and stop. Add the flour and about 1/3 of the almond flour +1 egg, mix until all incorporated. Repeat until it’s all in. Spread the filling into the dough.
- It’s time to add the pears, cut in half then remove any remains of the pear core (if any). Slice the pears about 1/8 to 1/4″ thick. For a nice visual effect gently fan out the pear pushing them with your finger, then transfer them into the tart.
- Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes or until the frangipane is golden brown.
- Cover with a clean dishcloth at room temperature and eat within 2 days.
