Here's a fun fact about me: pears are my favourite fruit. I like them grainy, juicy and near-overripe, and I eat them by the kilo during pear season. I like to leave them out in the fruit bowl on top of the microwave so long that they'd attract flies if there were any around in the depths of winter. I also like to bake them, and make them into pies, and poach them, but I'd yet to tackle what Masterchef would call a 'French-style' pear and almond tart. Probably because it's the sort of thing recipe books and blogs and tele shows and whatnot described in hushed tones as some kind of tricksy patisserie pinnacle.
I am both ambitious and lazy, so I resolved to swede together a pear and almond tart that wouldn't even require me to dust off my differently abled food processor. I've long been using David Lebovitz' frighteningly easy sweet tart dough, the sweet equivalent of my olive oil tart crust. David's dough is a triple threat of awesome: first, it takes less than 15 minutes, second, you don't even need to roll it out, and third, it's kind of dangerous. Here is what David does: he puts some butter in a bowl with a bit of salt, oil and sugar, then splashes in some water. He puts the whole thing in a hot oven until it's all melted together and bubbling. Then he dumps in some flour and stirs briskly to form a kind of choux pastry. Then he immediately presses it into a tart tin and whacks it back in the oven. No rolling pins, no pastry weights, no mess, no fuss. Well, there is a wee bit of fuss. This shell is prone to cracking, so David pinches off a little bit of dough before pressing it into the tin to patch up any cracks after baking, and you do have to handle the hot, baked crust very carefully, but that's no big deal.
The rest of it is easy as. Usually almond cream, or frangipane cream as the French like to call, is made by grinding blanched almonds with sugar, then adding butter and eggs. I went straight to the pre-ground almonds and mixed it with a handheld mixer. It was no more difficult than beating together a simple cake batter. The pears were easiest of all. I just gave them a spell on the stove in a light syrup spiked with pepper, cinnamon and star anise, and it made my entire house smell amazing.
So there you have it. A very easy tart. I will give one last caveat, though: you can't rush this guy. The baked shell really does need some time to cool its heels before you fill it, the pears do need to cool and drain before you slice them, and the baked tart needs a good, long 15 minute rest before you cut it. But it's not like you need to do anything during all that resting time. Do it.
Pear and Almond Tart
Of mixed origin. Serves 6-8.
For pears:
4 pleasant looking pears, of any variety
2 sticks cinnamon
1-2 pieces star anise
4-5 peppercorns
Fat pinch of ground ginger, or a couple of coins of fresh
1/2 cup sugar
Peel the pears. Cut off the stem end, then halve. Using a teaspoon as a little spade dig out the core, then scrape away the blossom end (aka the pear's bum end). Put pear halves in a large saucepan with spices and sugar. Cover generously with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered. Next, make the tart shell.
Tart shell, via
David Lebovitz:
90g butter, cut into pieces
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp neutral vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar
Fat pinch of salt
1 rounded cup flour
Preheat the oven to 210 degrees C. Put the butter, water, oil, sugar and salt in a large ovenproof bowl - I used a Pyrex mixing bowl. Put the bowl in the oven for around 15 minutes until the butter is melted and bubbling. Have a spatula and your 23cm tart tin ready.
Remove the bowl from the oven and place it on a folded tea towel for stability. Immediately dump in the flour and stir to combine with the spatula. It'll sizzle and spit a little, but will soon form a smooth dough ball. Dump the dough into the tart tin and pat it out into the tin using the heel of your hand. Oh, and also pinch off a raspberry sized piece to patch any cracks in the baked shell. It's tough to get the dough evenly distributed - I find it easier to push it evenly up the sides of the tin then work on patting it out over the base of the tin. Prick the base several times with the tines of a fork, then pop it back in the oven for 15 minutes, until pale gold. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
At this point, line a plate with four or so layers of paper towel. The pears should be very tender, so remove them from the poaching liquid with a slotted spoon and place them, cut side down, on the paper towels. Pat the tops with another paper towel to blot off more liquid. At this point I put the poaching liquid back on high heat to reduce it. Set the tart shell and pears aside while you make the almond cream .
Almond cream adapted from
Cooks Illustrated (note - recipe is behind a paywall):
1/2 cup icing sugar
110g ground almonds, aka one packet
85g butter, very soft
1 large egg
1 egg white
Whisk together the ground almonds and icing sugar, then beat in the egg and egg white using an electric mixer. Thoroughly beat in the butter.
Reduce the oven heat to 180 degrees C. Patch any cracks in your tart shell using the reserved dough, just pressing it in lightly. Spread the almond cream evenly over the tart shell. Take a pear half and slice it into 1/2cm horizontal slices, keeping it together. Remove the first four slices from the narrow end and eat them because they are tasty, and press lightly on the sliced pear with the palm of your hand to fan it out towards the narrow end. I used the large offset spatula I keep around for icing cakes to transfer the sliced pears to the tart, but you don't have to do that. I put the first pear half in the centre of the tart and arranged the rest around the edges like misshapen petals, and wound up with one leftover pear half, which I also ate because it was delicious.
Bake for 45 minutes until puffed and browned, rotating halfway through baking so you don't end up with oddly browned bits as I did. Place on a wire rack and brush with the reduced poaching liquid. Let cool for a good 15 minutes or so before removing the tart ring and devouring whole.