TWD: French Pear Tart

French Vanilla, French Fries, French Kiss. The French have to be the world's best marketers. All the good things in life?? Ehhh... let's put the word French in front of it and call it ours. Brilliant.

I've yet to go to France, but it is near the top of my list... Despite it's reputation for being snobby or snooty, I've always had a fascination with it. I mean... the food, the wine, the countryside... it just all seems so simple and delicious.

I'm thrilled to say that this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by the author herself, Dorie Greenspan. She chose the French Pear Tart. Had I ever had a French Pear Tart before? No, of course not. But pears and almond cream sounded awesome to me and I was excited to whip this up.

In the interest of my waistline, I opted to halve this recipe and used the adorable little creme brulee ramekins that came as apart of an awesome creme brulee set that my brother got me for christmas! I got 3 cute little tarts out of half of the recipe.

The recipe came together easily, even without a food processor. The almond cream puffed up around the pears to where you could barely even see the pears. The aroma was amazing and the outcome was delicious, too. Although, I strayed from Dorie's recipe and added almond extract instead of vanilla and I think that was a mistake. The filling was actually a little sweet for my taste (which is saying a lot, because I love all things super sweet) and I think the almond extract boosted that. The thing I loved most about this pear tart was the texture. It's slightly crispy (in a dainty way) and it's got a slight chew to it that you don't normally get in fruit tarts and I really enjoyed that. I'd like to try this recipe with a tart-er fruit or possibly with less sugar and vanilla instead of almond extract.

Overall, another awesome recipe from Dorie and the French. Thanks for choosing this recipe, Dorie and thanks for writing such a kick ass cookbook!