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Pear Almond Tart

Pear Almond Tart

A beautiful tart is a sophisticated dish to add to any table. The pears, almond cream and toasted almonds in this recipe are perfect compliments to one another visually and in flavor. I love serving this dish for the holidays because it is elegant, but simple to make. The tart dough is from SWEET by Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi.

Ingredients

  • 2 1/3 cups (300g) all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup (90g) confectioners' sugar
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (200g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
  • 1 tsp lemon or orange zest
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tbsp water more if it isn't coming together
  • 4 Poached Bosc or Bartlett Pears there are only 3 in the tart I made and I think it needed one more.
  • 1 cup almond cream (frangipane)
  • 1 cup toasted almonds crushed
  • 1 tbsp sugar for dusting over the top

Instructions

  • Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is cut into the flour and you can no longer see pieces. The flour will still be powdery. Pulse in the zest. Add the yolk and water, mix until the dough comes together. Pour it onto the counter and knead until it is a smooth ball. Wrap and refrigerator until it is well chilled, at least an hour. Can be made 2 days in advance or frozen for up to a month.
  • Roll out the tart dough to fit a 9-inch tart pan and blind bake it until golden brown (you can see directions on rolling and blind baking here).
  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • Fill the baked shell with almond cream. Slice the poached pears in half (leaving the stem on), make thin slices of pears, leaving them together, so you can still see their form. Place them over the almond cream. Sprinkle the toasted almonds around the edge, dust the whole tart with the sugar and bake until the almond cream is puffed and golden. It will take about 20 minutes, give or take, depending on if your frangipane was cold or if you just mixed it up before filling the tart shell.