French Pear & Almond Tart

This pear and almond tart or amandine aux poires is also known as Tarte Bourdaloue and was created around 1850 by a Parisian patissier on Rue Bourdaloue – hence the name!  It can be made with fresh pears (ideally poached first) or you can use tinned pears which work perfectly.

Ingredients :

• 1 shortbread pastry
• 100g softened butter
• 100g sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• A few drops of almond essence
• Sliced almonds (optional)
• Apricot jelly to glaze*

 

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C
2. Roll out chilled dough and line tin, place in freezer for 15 minutes
3. Bake the pastry for 10 minutes a 200°C, once removed from the oven lower the temperature to 180°C
4. Cream the butter and sugar
5. Add eggs and almond essence and mix well
6. Mix in the ground almonds
7. Spread the mixture evenly over the pastry base
8. Slice the pear halves in thin slices, place them on the almond mixture
9. Sprinkle the tart with almond slices
10. Bake in oven for 30 minutes

 

*Glaze : You can heat a few spoons of apricot jelly and brush the top of your tart once it has cooled down to give it a nice shiny look!