You just have to look at any cooking show, the display window of any pâtisserie or any cookbook on baking to realise how popular this tart is. It encompasses everything that a tart should be: rustic and appetising, very easy to make, and still delicious or even better the day after, for breakfast (as is the French way!), with a cup of coffee. The beautiful balance between the different textures of soft fruit, fluffy almond cream and crumbly shortcrust have ensured that this tart has remained unchanged for more than a 100 years and remains one of my favourite tarts to make when cooking at home.
Pear and almond tarts are commonly called tarte Bourdaloue, even though the original version was actually made with poached apricots. A French baker is credited with its creation at the end of the nineteenth century. His bakery was situated on a street called Rue Bourdaloue … and hence the name.
Ingredients
- 10½ oz (300 g) Pâte Sablée
- 9 oz (250 g) Almond Cream
- 8½ oz (240 g) caster (superfine) sugar
- 2 vanilla beans, halved lengthways
- 2–3 william (bartlett) pears
- 6¼ oz (180 g) caster (superfine) sugar
- 1¼ fl oz (40 ml) Williamine pear eau-de-vie, or any pear-based liqueur
- To make the poached pears, put the sugar, vanilla beans and 500 ml (17 fl oz) water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Peel the pears, then add to the syrup, cover the pan with a lid and simmer gently for 15 minutes, or until tender but still firm to the bite. Be careful not to overcook the pears; you need to feel a bit of resistance when piercing them with a knife. Drain and cool, then cut the pears in half lengthways and remove the cores but keep the stem of one of the pears attached.
- You will need a 25 cm (10 in) tart ring or tart tin with a removable base. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface until 5 mm (¼ in) thick, dusting with a little extra flour if necessary to stop the dough from sticking. Line the base and side of the tin with the pastry, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C (345°F). Tarts filled with almond cream don’t need the pastry to be blind baked. Spoon the almond cream into the pastry shell until about three-quarters full. The volume of the almond cream will vary, depending on how much it was beaten, so you might have some leftover. Cut each pear half into four wedges and arrange on top of the almond cream. Place a wedge of pear with the stem attached in the centre of the tart. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden.
- Meanwhile, to make the liqueur syrup, put 250 ml (9 fl oz) water, the sugar and pear liqueur in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon as the tart comes out of the oven, brush a small amount of syrup over the pears, but not too much or the tart will go soggy.
- You have probably eaten this tart before, so you may have your preferred way to serve it. I am not a big fan of eating it warm, because the flavour of the pear tends to get overpowered by the sweetness of the almond cream, so I like to serve it cold, perhaps with a strong coffee or even a glass of crisp white wine.