A pear! This baby is growing so fast. I love ripe pears. I have a great Caramel Pear Pie recipe that I bake closer to Thanksgiving and I almost made that for this week’s fruit baby. Instead, I remembered reading about Frangipane tarts with different kinds of fruit on them. I decided to combine the two and make a Pear Frangipane Tart. Frangipane is a French almond cream filling that is often used to fill tarts. I made a sweet crust as a base, filled it with almond cream, plopped some pears on top and voila! It was so good.
Sweet Crust (makes a 9-10 inch tart)
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter(cold)
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Make the dough:
Gather all ingredients. It helps if the butter and the egg are cold until right before you use them.
Stir together all the drys.
Cut the butter into small cubes and place into a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, blend the butter into the drys until the butter is in pieces no larger than small peas. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until dough pulls together.
Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and form a disc with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and either refrigerate for an hour or freeze for a half hour. You can store in fridge for up to three days if you do this step ahead.
Get out a tart pan that is 9-10 inches wide. Grease your pan.
Take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly for easier rolling. Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Make sure your rolling pin also has flour on it so it doesn’t stick and tear on the rolling pin. Roll the dough loosely around the rolling pin and unroll it onto the tart pan. Press dough evenly into the pan. See if you can keep 2 mm of dough peeking out over the edges of the pan as the dough will shrink while baking. Prick the surface of the tart all over with a fork. Place into the freezer another 30 minutes until firm.
Preheat your oven to 375°F. When the oven is ready, remove the crust from the freezer. Lay a piece or two of parchment paper down onto dough and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Make sure the parchment extends over the edges so that the tart crust doesn’t burn.
Bake your crust for 20 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven and remove the pie weights and parchment. Return your now naked crust to the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove and let it cool to room temperature. This step can be done a day or two in advance if easier for you.
Almond Cream:
½ cup butter (at room temperature)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
1 Tablespoon rum
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Pears:
3 small Bartlett or Anjou pears, ripe.
½ lemon
3 Tablespoons apricot jam
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon toasted sliced almonds
Cream the butter. Add the powdered sugar and mix until it resembles a coarse meal. Add the almond flour, all-purpose flour, and salt and continue to mix on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each one. Add the rum and extracts and mix until smooth.
Assemble and bake your tart:
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Warm the apricot jam and water in a small saucepan and set aside. Brush a thin layer of apricot jam on the bottom of the cooled crust. Fill the tart shell with the almond cream filling and refrigerate for 30 more minutes.
Peel the pears and cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the core. Slice each half crosswise into ⅛ inch slices. Rub the lemon juice over all the pears to prevent them from browning. Take the tart out of the fridge. Run your knife under a half of a pear and gently press down to slightly fan the pear out. Place the pear half onto the almond cream with the pointed end at the center of the tart. You should end up with six spokes in a wheel on the tart. Make sure to leave spaces around the pears so that the filling has room to puff up and expand while it cooks.
Bake the tart for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown or a skewer comes out clean. Let cool on a rack. Once cool, brush the surface of the tart with the apricot jam. Sift powdered sugar over the tart and sprinkle on the toasted almonds.
