Tuesday, January 6, 2009

TWD - French Pear Tart

This weeks recipe for a French Pear Tart was chosen by the author of "Baking: From My Home to Yours", Dorie Greenspan! Ooh la la ... a french pastry. I had a French class in college and we had to give a 5 minute speech, en francais, about something French. I, of course, choose French pastries, which I knew absolutely nothing about. My rambling speech also included some fresh examples. My professor, who was approximately 39 weeks pregnant at the time, gave me some sort of passing grade and ate all my desserts.

I've never baked a tart and I'm pretty sure that I've never even eaten a tart so I was a little intimidated by this assignment. After reading through the recipe I realized that this recipe was relatively easy and that, once AGAIN, I have the wrong size pan! I think this is the third recipe, that did not involve a cookie sheet, in a row! Although I own a new 10-inch tart pan and the recipe called for a 9-inch tart pan, I relaxed about the pan size after pre-baking the crust. The crust fit the pan well!

I whipped up the almond cream, filled the tart shell, and got started on slicing the pears. I bought 4 fresh pears (the recipe called for only 3) and I pealed and sliced all 4 of them. For some reason, I was thinking that the pears should cover the entire top of the tart so ended up using all of my pears!

I really love how this dessert turned out! The crust tasted like shortbread, the almond cream was smooth and delicious, and the pears had just the right firmness. I will definitely be making this one again!

When I do it again, however, I will make more almond cream because I think my slices (yeah, I ate 3 of them) were a little slim.

The recipe called for brushing the tart with apple jelly or sprinkling with powdered sugar. I did neither. I like my tart naked. Please go to the TWD Blogroll to see how the rest of the bakers did.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your tart looks amazing. This was a really good recipe. A hit all-around.

What's for Supper? said...

This recipe is really a great one. Good job!

Sabrina said...

You did a great job! It looks fantastic!! :)

Shelby said...

hehe. Your last comment had me giggling.

The tart was wonderful...and Grumpy and I ate it all by ourselves!

kimberly salem said...

your tart looks so beautiful! i like the bigger size since you were really able to fan and spread out the pears. beautiful work and glad you liked it!

farah said...

Great job, your tart looks fantastic!

Amanda said...

I too had never tackled a tart and was pleased. If I had not looked at Dorie's picture first, I would have felt the urge to cover the entire tart too. My over-cooked a bit on the crust, although it didn't effect taste so much. I loved it also and yours looks great. Congrats!

vibi said...

Woah... Kimberly! What a nice first tart attempt! Just like a pro!

By the way... don't worry too, too much about pan sizes, they really often turn out the same (you might have to sometimes evaluate cooking time differently, though)

No way you could have been aprehensive about something you got such amazing results with! WOW!

Cooking for Comfort by Jennifer said...

I liked my tart naked as well...you did a fabulous job!

Anne said...

That looks beautiful with so much pear- yum!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely gorgeous...you did this all on the first try? Wow...great looking tart!

spike. said...

I like your naked tart!

Anonymous said...

As always, a beautiful success!

I'm actually considering getting the book *gulp*

Susan @ SGCC said...

You did a beautiful job! Your tart looks perfect and extremely delicious!

chocolatechic said...

Just beautiful.

I also love your plate.

Cathy said...

Your tart looks perfect! Love the way you fanned the pears! Even with a picture I wouldn't be able to pull that off. So glad that you loved this -- I am thrilled to have this one in the repertoire!

Unknown said...

Oh wow, your pears look so pretty! Perfectly fanned. Great job!

LyB said...

Your tart looks so lovely! I think you had the right idea using more pears, it must have been delicious.

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Lovely tart! You have done the pear fanning beautifully.

threesidesofcrazy said...

I had a naked tart too! Yours looks awesome.

Lauren said...

Pretty perfect for a first try. Good job. Thanks for your comments too.