Best French Pear Tart Recipes

FRENCH PEAR TART WITH NUTS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Unroll the puff pastry sheet and line a tart pan with it. Cut off any overhanging pastry. Prick pastry several times with a fork.
• Stir together creme fraiche, egg, and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Fold in nut mix.
• Arrange pear slices on puff pastry and cover with creme fraiche mixture.
• Bake tart in the preheated oven until the filling is lightly colored and pastry has puffed up and browned, about 25 minutes.

FRENCH PEAR TART - PART 1

Steps:

• Getting ready: If you are using canned pears, you have nothing to do now. If you are using fresh pears but do not wish to poach them, you have nothing to do now. If you are using fresh pears and want to poach them, peel them and leave them whole. Bring the 4 cups water, the 1 1/4 cups sugar and the juice of the lemon to a boil in a saucepan just large enough to hold the pears. Add the pears to the boiling syrup, lower the heat so the syrup simmers and gently poach the pears until they are tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes. Cool the pears to room temperature in the syrup. To make the almond cream: Put the butter and sugar in the workbowl of a food processor and process until the mixture is smooth and satiny. Add the ground almonds and continue to process until well blended. Add the flour and cornstarch, process, and then add the egg. Process for about 15 seconds more, or until the almond cream is homogeneous. Add the rum or vanilla and process just to blend. If you prefer, you can make the cream in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a bowl with a rubber spatula. In either case, the ingredients are added in the same order. Scrape the almond cream into a container and either use it immediately or refrigerate it until firm, about 2 hours. Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Have a lined baking sheet at the ready. If you are using fresh (unpoached) pears, peel them now. If you are using poached or unpoached pears, cut them in half from blossom to stem and core them; rub the unpoached pears with lemon juice. Whatever pears you have, make sure to pat them dry - really dry - so that their liquid won't keep the almond cream from baking.

FRENCH PEAR TART

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• FOR TART DOUGH:
• Combine butter + 1/4 cup sugar in med bowl, mix till well-blended & then mix in the flour.
• Beat together vanilla + 2 eggs, add to flour mixture, mix till dough forms & chill for 10 minutes.
• Grease & flour bottom of 9-in tart pan w/removable bottom. Roll chilled dough 1-in larger than pan.
• Place dough in pan & press dough to sides of tart pan (It needs to come to the rim of the pan). Bake for 10 minutes.
• FOR CUSTARD:.
• Combine yolks + 2 eggs, beat well & set aside.
• Combine milk, cream + sugar & place in top of dbl-boiler. Cook over simmering water till temp reaches 140°F.
• Remove from heat, add egg mixture (whisking constantly) & strain.
• FOR TART ASSEMBLY: Arrange pear slices in tart shell. Pour custard mixture over pears till shell is almost full. Bake 25 min or till custard is set. Remove from heat & allow to stand for 30 minutes.
• TO SERVE: Cook jam & wine in a sml saucepan to form glaze. Brush glaze over tart, cool completely & refrigerate till ready to serve.

FRENCH PEAR TART - PART 2

Steps:

• Fill the baked crust with the almond cream, spreading it even with an offset metal icing spatula. Thinly slice each pear half crosswise, lift each half on a spatula, press down on the pear to fan it slightly and place it, wide-end toward the edge of the crust, over the almond cream. The halves will form spokes. Put the crust on the lined baking sheet, slide the sheet into the oven and bake the tart 50 to 60 minutes, or until the almond cream puffs up around the pears and browns. Transfer the tart to a rack to cool to just warm or to room temperature before unmolding. Right before serving, dust the tart with confectioners' sugar. If you prefer, prepare a glaze by bringing about 1/4 cup apple jelly and1/2 teaspoon water to the boil. Brush the glaze over the surface of the tart. To make the dough: Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in the workbowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely - you'll have pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pea-size pieces and that's just fine. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses - about 10 seconds each - until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before your reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change - heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Very lightly and sparingly - make that very, very lightly and sparingly - knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. If you want to press the dough into a tart pan, now is the time to do it.

FRENCH PEAR TART

Steps:

• Mix flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Add butter and pulse to fine crumbs. In small bowl, stir yolk and 2 tbsp cream; pour in while processor is running. Pulse until flour is moistened. Press crumbs into a 9-inch pie plate or 9-1/2 inch tart tin with removable bottom. Build up the sides and press firmly on sides and bottom. Refrigerate 30 minutes. In small bowl, whisk cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla and nutmeg. Slice pears lengthwise, about 1/4-inch thick. Lift into crust and fan out slices. Stir cream mixture and pour over pears. Bake 15 minutes on lowest rack in 425F oven. Reduce heat to 375F and bake 30 to 35 minutes longer, until set in the middle. Remove and cool on rack. Melt chocolate in microwave or small saucepan and drizzle over pears. Refrigerate, lightly covered, until cold and chocolate sets. Serve in wedges.

RECIPE TARTE AUX POIRES NORMANDE (FRENCH PEAR TART) BY FOOD STORY

Steps:

• While I was living in Fontainebleau Tarte Normande was one of my favorite desserts. In one of the bakeries I frequented it was just incredible. I tried it once and got addicted forever. Since then I was almost never able to leave this bakery without a piece.
• Eating Tarte Normande the first time I couldn't exactly tell how it was made. It was a large round open tart. The crispy pâte feuilletée (French puff pastry) was filled with apples baked in some delicious custard. Later I found it was frangipane (sweet and soft almond paste). It also had this special aroma which (as I know now) comes from Calvados.
• When the lady in my bakery noticed me frequently asking for the Tarte Normande she asked if I wanted it "aux pommes ou aux poires?" (with apples or pears?). Thus I tried the one with pears and preferred it.
• That was my first attempt to make the Tarte Normande at home.
• Tarte aux poires normande (French pear tart) (recipe adapted from L'Internaute)
• serves 8
• g pâte sablée (French short pastry) see the recipe here
• pears
• tbs lemon juice
• gr sugar
• for the frangipane:
• gr butter
• gr ground almonds
• gr sugar
• egg
• tbs calvados
• tbs flour
• few drops almond extract
• Peel, core and quarter the pears. In a medium pan dissolve the 80 gr sugar in a cup of water. Add the pears, bring to boil and cook under a lid for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and let the pears cool down in the syrup.
• To make the frangipane stir together the butter and 70 gr sugar. One by one mix in the egg, ground almonds, flour. Add the calvados and almond extract.
• Roll the pastry into a circle and cover a buttered 22 cm round baking dish with it. Fork the pastry. Pour in the frangipane and even the layer. Take the pears out of the syrup and dry them slightly. Place the pears on the frangipane and press them down. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
• Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180C and bake for another 20 minutes (40 minutes in total). Take the tart out of the oven and let cool a bit inside the baking dish.
• Reduce the pear syrup for around 1/3 and brush the tart with it to make it glossy. Serve warm on its own or with vanilla sauce or ice-cream. This time I served it with my favorite caramel sauce, though it might be a bit too sweet for it.
• This time the tart came out tasty but not exactly the same. Google, Wikipedia, L'Internaute and all the possible sources seemed to be sure that the proper pastry for the tart is pâte sablée (French short pastry). I tried it with pâte sablée this time and now I'm sure the one I liked so much was made with pâte feuilletée (puff pastry). The frangipane also turned out a bit thicker then the one I'm used to. This might be because in the bakery they used sour cream at the place of butter (I came across different recipes). Thus I'm making another one shortly.
• Related posts and pages:
• Pastry & Cakes
• Dessert sauces
• French food
• Recipes
• Moscow cafes and bakeries guide
• Food books