My suggestion for today is a recipe suitable for this season pear and frangipane

(almond filling) tart, worthy to be served to the French royalty, where it appears to
have arrived, according to the legends, through Catherine de Medici, who received
the recipe as a gift from the Italian count Frangipani. Whether true or not, it does
not matter as much nowadays; whats important is that we had a splendid pear crop
and that this pear and almond tart is absolutely delicious. And I truly believe that
the same tart can be made using other fruits (plums, nectarines etc.) with equally
spectacular results. Its not very difficult to make and it is a dessert thats
guaranteed to bring you great success, so I guess Ill be waiting for your
impressions soon.

Ingredients for the Pear And Almond Tart:

300g of flour

150g of sugar

1 pinch of salt

lemon zest

150g of butter (very cold)

1 egg yolk

a few tablespoons of (very) cold water for the dough (I used 8)

3-4 big pears, pretty and healthy

200g of sugar for the syrup in which you are going to boil the pears

spices for the syrup: vanilla pod, cinnamon stick, 4-5 cloves, 1 starshaped anise, bits of lemon rind

200g of blanched almonds (or flakes)

150g of sugar (for the filling)

150g of butter (for the filling)

2 whole eggs

4 tablespoons of good quality cognac (optional)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

additionally: butter to grease the tart form, flour to sprinkle, powdered

sugar to finish/decorate

Preparation for the Pear And Almond Tart:

First of all, the dough for the tart, which needs a resting time in the fridge for
at least an hour before being used:
1. Thoroughly mix the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest (approx. 1
tablespoon) in a bowl (picture 1).
2. Add the diced or grated butter (I repeat, the butter needs to be very cold,
even straight out of the freezer picture 2).
3. You can either mix all the ingredients together using the food processor
until they achieve a sandy consistency or you can simply incorporate the
butter into the dry ingredients using a fork (picture 3).
4. Whisk the egg yolk with two tablespoons of very cold water and pour the
mixture over the rest of the ingredients, quickly kneading by hand or with
the food processor/kitchen aid (picture 4).
5. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time to bind the dough together
(picture 5); the required water quantity can vary depending on the flour you
have used be careful so as not to add more than is necessary and also do
not over-knead, because it would only ruin the final quality of the dough.

Roll the dough in a ball, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge for at
least an hour.

In the meantime, take care of the pears, which need to be ripe and
flavourful, but still hard. Peel the pears and cut them in halves. Place them in
a pot and cover with cold water, then take them out and leave them aside for
a short while. Add the 200g of sugar and the spices in the remaining water.
Bring the syrup to a boil, then add the pears and lower the temperature,
leaving it to boil slowly, without bubbling up, for 10 to 15 minutes until the
pears are really soft.

Take the pears out of the syrup and drain them very carefully, then leave
them aside to cool down (you can use the syrup for something else it has a
very pleasant aroma).
To prepare the almond filling, put the almonds in the food processor (or use
an electric grinder) together with 50g of sugar (picture 1). Grind until you
obtain a fine powder. Mix the butter and the rest of the sugar until you get a
very smooth filling (picture 2). Add the almonds, the cognac and the vanilla
extract (picture 3) and mix into a homogenous paste. Finally, add the two
eggs, one at a time.

Put the filling in the fridge until you will need to use it.
Sprinkle some flour on the kitchen worktop and roll out the dough in a sheet
as thick as 4-5mm, which you can then wrap around the rolling pin and
transfer into the buttered tart form. Gently press the dough into the form and
trim off the excess with a knife to give it a uniform look.

Place the tart form in the fridge and switch on the oven, setting the
temperature at 190 degrees Celsius.
From now on you can adopt one of two different approaches:
1. If you want the shell to be crispy, you will bake it for the first half of the
required baking time before adding the filling (this is what I did myself);
2. If, however, you want the crust to be suppler, place the tart form with the
dough inside it in the freezer for 40 minutes up to an hour, add the filling and
bake it right away.
I, because I wanted my crust to have the consistency of a biscuit, placed a
sheet of baking paper with weights on it (approx. 700g of rice though you
can also use beans, chickpeas etc.) inside the cold form.

I put the tart in the preheated oven at 190 degrees (together with the rice)
and I baked it for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, I removed the seeds from the sweetened pears and cut them in
thin slices.
After the first 20 minutes, I removed the tart from the oven and disposed of
the baking paper with the rice on it. I evened out the frangipane filling really
quickly and arranged the pears on the surface (even though it looked really
nice in the end, Im sure it can be done even better: P).

I put the tart in the oven once again, lowered the temperature at 180
degrees and baked it for another 55 minutes, until its surface became
golden-brown.

Leave it to cool down at room temperature, then you can slice it and its
ready to be eaten either sprinkled with powdered sugar or not according
to everyones own preferences. The next day I thought it was even tastier.

Bon
apptit!
I took inspiration (and did NOT copy: P) from the following source: The
english kitchen.