I feel like such a groupie! In honor of TWD’s one year anniversary, Dorie Greenspan picked this week’s recipe – her French Pear Tart, which you can find on Dorie’s website, or on pages 368-69 of Baking: From My Home to Yours. I think this has now moved to the top of the list of my favorite Dorie recipes. I used canned pears (according to Dorie, a very French thing to do, and I’m not going to argue), and regular old almonds (unblanched). I used an adaptation of Dorie Greenspan’s Good for Anything Pie Crust, and substituted cream cheese for the shortening.
What can I say? The dessert is absolutely fantastic. Master Chow, my honorable husband, announced that this ranks with one of the best desserts he’s ever had – in a restaurant! He could have eaten the whole thing, and thought that the canned pears (canned without sugar and in their own juice) worked out really well. The filling combined with the crust to form almost a chewy cookie-like texture at the bottom of the tart. The frangipane filling was light and flavorful. I should point out here that I chose to use 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, along with 2 teaspoons of golden rum for the filling, and I’m going to use that again. I also added a pinch of kosher salt to the almond cream. And after making the Daring Bakers Buche de Noel (another fabulous dessert, but considerably more work), putting this together was a piece of cake. Or tart, I should say.
Thank you, Dorie, for a great pick and a great book. Please check out the blogroll to see how others have fared with the tart, and for an interview with Dorie.