Almond and Pear Tart

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One of my favourite fruits is a pear, and I love anything with almonds, so decided to put the two together and make a tart.
The filling for the tart is an almond cream, a frangipane.

 I used a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin and made a sweet shortcrust pastry case using 200g plain flour, 150g butter, 2 tbspn icing sugar and 2 - 21/2 tbspn water. Baked it blind at 200C for 5 mins then turned oven down to 170C and baked for further 10 mins.

 For the filling 
85g butter at room temperature, 140 g caster sugar, 90g ground almonds, 2 tspns plain flour, 1 tspn cornflour, 1 large egg, 1 tspn vanilla extract.

 You also need 6 tinned pear halves or you could use fresh ones. If you do, you'd need to poach them first.

 Preheat oven 180C.

 To make the filling - put the butter and sugar in a bowl or a mixer [with whisk attachment] and cream till white. Add the ground almonds and mix togther. Add in the flours then the egg and gently mix together. Finally add in the vanilla extract and mix in, then put mixture in the fridge for 2 hours till firm.
Dry the tinned or poached pears on kitchen towel the spoon the almond mixture into the pastry case and spread it over evenly. Slice the pear halves carefully so they will fan out in the tart. Press them, cut side down, evenly over the top of the mixture.
Put the tart on a baking sheet and bake for about 50 mins till the almond mixture comes up round the pears and becomes brown.
Cool on a wire rack then remove from the tin. Dust the top with icing sugar before serving.


The tart was sweet, but not too sweet, the filling was soft, moist and almondy, then the crunchy texture of the pastry. You could make the filling in advance and freeze it or keep in wrapped tight in the fridge for 2 days. Apples, apricots of peaches could be used instead of pears, so this is a versatile tart to have in your repertoire.









Comments

The Caked Crusader said…
Pear and almond is the best combination - love your tart!
13/2/16 5:05 am
Suelle said…
There are times when tinned fruit does just as good a job as fresh, and this sort of tart is one of those occasions! I love the pear and almond combination too.
13/2/16 5:42 am
Phil in the Kitchen said…
I love a frangipane tart (or two) and pear is my favourite. Looks lovely. I could imagine myself back in France eating this.
15/2/16 2:49 pm
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