A Tourtely Pear Tart

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake. She chose A Tourtely Apple Tart, which is an apple tart with a beautiful almond cookie crust. I chose to make a pear tart, which worked just as well! If you’d like to give this recipe a try, you can visit Jeanette’s blog and get the complete recipe. You can also see how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers interpreted this recipe by visiting the “Leave your Links” post on the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

I decided to make smaller 3-1/2” tarts rather than one big one. I made the entire amount of filling, since I had bought that much fruit, but the filling is so good on its own that I have no doubt that it will disappear fairly quickly. I used three different types of pears: red, Bosc, and d’anjou. They were each a little different in texture and flavor, so I thought that would make the tarts even more interesting. I decided to leave the raisins out of the filling since I wasn’t sure that worked with the pears and I used apple brandy in place of apple cider. Since I was making small tarts, I did mash the filling a bit to break up the big pieces.

I was a little bit afraid of trying to roll out the pastry, since I had only used this pastry as a press in the pan pastry, but it rolled out with no problem. I thought about rushing the tart and not letting things chill as long as the recipe specified, but I’m glad I didn’t rush it. I make the filling and dough one day and then assembled it the next. It was certainly worth the wait as this is a fantastic tart. The crust is good enough to eat as a cookie and the filling is so good! I loved this recipe and I can’t wait to try it again with apples.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 306 and 307