ce mercredi je mange ... une tarte poire amandes

For my "ce mercredi je mange" post, (this Wednesday I am eating) I thought I'd share another great recipe  that I used at the brunch - pear and almond tart.  A true winner of a dessert that I  often make - using pears in the winter and peaches in the summer.

First make up, or use a ready made, rich sweet pastry.  Roll it out and bake blind at 180C until golden.  It's definitely worth while doing this step to ensure that the pastry base of the tart is crisp as opposed to soggy.

This recipe is best baked in a 30cm / 12" loose bottom tart mould, failing this do as I do here, and use two lengths of wax paper, to line the mould, left to overhang on each side.  That way when the tart is cooled, you can use these paper 'handles' to lift it out without dropping or breaking

Here I used dry beans to bake blind, but if all else fails I sometimes 

lay a couple of forks on the wax paper.

 Peel 4 or 5 good sized, just-ripe pears, cut in half lengthwise and remove the cores.

Arrange the pear halves, cut side down, neatly around the pastry case.

 Now to make the almond mix.

Pop into your mixer (trying hard not to think about calories)

250g / 8 oz  butter

250g / 8 oz ground almonds

250g / 8 oz sugar

 When it looks like breadcrumbs, add 2 large eggs.

Beat  until well mixed then spoon the , rather stdgy looking, mixture ovr the top of the pear halves.  Don't worry if it looks a mess at this stage, it will sort itself out as if by magic in the oven!

Pop into the oven at 160 C.  While this starts baking, and as an option, you can roll out any pastry left over from the case and cut into strips.  After the tart has been baking for about 15 minutes, lift it out of the oven, and lay 4, 6 or 8 strips across the tart.  Up to you how you do this.

The tart takes about an hour to cook, you can test if it's done with a knife stuck into the middle.  If it comes out clean then your tart is ready.  Best served slightly warm, but cold is good too!

Bon appetit!

If any of you want to try this, send me a photo and I'll add your picture to 

this post and link back to you.
 .................

Now look at this beautiful pear tart that Gina sent in from her lovely blog Gina Ceramics
Thank you Gina, this looks delicious