Tuesdays with Dorie: French Pear Tart

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection is the French Pear Tart. This week’s recipe was selected by Dorie herself! It’s great that Dorie would take the time to join our group this week. Take a look at Dorie’s blog for the complete recipe.

I’d made a pear tart before, but it was a bit different that this tart. I don’t recall what sort of filling the tart had. This tart has a fabulous almond pastry cream topped with sliced pears. I remember the sliced pears from the other tart, but that’s all I really recall.

I followed this recipe pretty much to the letter. I opted to use the canned pears, which was a huge time saver. There’s a fairly decent selection of pears in the store right now, but it was really simple to use the canned pears. I used ground sliced almonds for the ground almonds, and I think that maybe I didn’t get them ground finely enough. I noticed that Whole Food has ground almonds for sale in a package and theirs was more finely ground. At any rate, I think that what I used worked just fine.

This week’s recipe felt so different for me since I didn’t end up using my stand mixer at all! I used the food processor for the pastry and the pastry cream. I really like the press in the pan pastry that this recipe uses. I think I may have missed the “don’t be too heavy-handed” note, as I pressed my pastry in the pan quite firmly. It turned out great and doesn’t seem tough. In fact, the crust has a great cookie flavor and I can envision using this crust for lots of applications.

This tart baked up wonderfully and my husband and I ate it the next day. Oh my, it is so yummy! The pears are nice and soft, the crust has that wonderful cookie taste and the almond pastry cream is just divine. I’m so happy that I made this tart and I think I will make this sometime when I’m having company for dinner. It’s just the perfect dessert. Thanks Dorie, for creating such great recipes!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 368-369