Tarte aux Poires

Saturday September, 5 2009

Tokyo, Japan

Gorgeous Summer Day

For my last cake class, I learned how to make a tart with almond filling and it was the best tart I've ever made!  Highly recommend this tart as it is easy to make and you can make different versions of it, eg, blueberries, peach, etc.  The crust was so buttery and flaky.  I had a piece and gave the rest to the concierge office of my apartment building and they gave it a 2 thumbs up!

Ingredients for the crust (Parte  Choucle)

• 60 grams of butter at room temperature
• 50 grams of powdered sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk at room temperature
• few drops of vanilla essence
• 80 grams of cake flour and 30 grams of almond powder sifted twice together (2 flours thus sift twice)

Ingredients for the Filling (Creme Amande)

• 35 grams of butter at room temperature
• 35 grams of sugar
• 35 grams of egg (break 2 eggs, beat and measure)
• 35 grams of almond powder
• 7-10 drops of vanilla essence

Topping

• Well drained canned pear slices, sliced thinly
• Glaze made from cooking 40 grams of apricot jam with about 20-40cc water
• Finely chopped pistachios

Making the crust:

• Make a large circle with the flour as shown below

• Add the ingredients for the crust as shown below.
• Take care so the egg yolk does not touch the sugar
• Rub salt in with the vanilla essence

• First squish the butter and eggs with your fingers until blended
• Then squish the salt with the butter/eggs and finally the sugar
• Clean hands if you like and with a bread scraper, "cut" in the flour
• • As it gets somewhat blended, make a mound
    • slice the mound thinly several times, with the scraper, flip and repeat until well blended
    • BUT, do not over blend!

• Then stretch the dough, with palm of hands, 5 times to make a fan.  Do this only once.
• Gather dough, shape as disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate (can put in freezer for about 20 min)

Now make the Filling:

• With hand held mixer, soften the butter
• At medium speed continue mixing the butter and add the vanilla essence
• Then add sugar and continue to blend
• Add egg in 4 parts while mixer is going at medium speed
• Sift almond powder over mixture and blend with a spatula
• Set aside

Assembling and Finishing

• Roll dough out evenly to cover a 15cm tart pan.
• Clean the dough on both sides carefully and poke holes with a fork.
• Carefully, lift dough with rolling pin and plan on the tart pan as shown below.

• Shape the dough to the pan, pinch sides, and cut excess dough
• It should look like the photo below. 

• Fill the tart with the filling and place the pears as shown below or any other way you wish.
• Bake at 170-180C for 30-35 minutes
• Take out of oven, remove the tart pan
• Let cool slightly, then brush the tart well with the glaze
• Sprinkle with pistachios and you are done!

The finished product:  Tarte aux Poires