DIRECTIONS

1. For all complicated baking, it is important to segment the baking in several steps that you can accomplish independently from each other. In this case, you can prepare the crust one day in advance along with the almond filling. On the day, you assemble and bake the tart (reducing the time spent in the kitchen on the day).

Making The Crust

1. The first step is to cream the butter with the sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter (which should be soft), the sugar, the almond flour, the salt and the vanilla powder. Using the beater, cream the butter using the top speed of the mixer and stopping when you have a homogeneous mix.

2. Break an egg in a bowl. Whisk it and take the weight you need for the recipe (keep the remainder for the filling). Add it to the bowl and beat the whole for one more minute at top speed.

3. Add now all the flour in the bowl. Reduce the speed to the lowest and mix until a dough ball starts taking shape. When you reached this stage, take the dough ball out.

4. Put the dough ball on top of parchment paper. Add a parchment paper sheet on top of it and flatten it using a rolling pin to a thickness of around 1/8 of an inch.

5. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper. Using the remaining sheet of parchment paper, lay the flattened dough in your tart pan or tart ring & remove the sheet of parchment paper. Press the dough against the sides to ensure that the dough is covering the full suface of the pan/ring. Using a fork, make some holes on the dough (to avoid air pockets under the dough during baking that would make it swell).

6. Put the dough in the freezer covered with a plastic film for at least one hour. This step will prevent your dough from shortening when baking.

7. Pre-heat your oven to 300°F. When ready, put the dought (directly from the freezer) in the oven and pre-bake for 30 minutes. Take your tart crust out of the oven and let it cool down. Your tart crust is ready! If done one day ahead, cover it with a plastic film and put it in the fridge.

Making The Filling

1. In a bowl, whisk the butter and the caster sugar together.

2. Once the sugar is incorporated, whisk in the almond powder.

3. Take enough egg and whisk it into the mix gently (the goal is to avoid adding air).

4. Add the rum and the vanilla, whisking the mix.

5. Add the corn starch, stirring the mix until you have an homogenous almond cream. You can put the cream in a sealed box in your fridge if you prepared the filling ahead of time.

6. Take four small pears, peel them, core them and slice them with the pattern of your choice. If you are not going to assemble the tart immediatly, cover them with some lemon juice to prevent the pears from becoming black.

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Assembling & Baking The Tart

1. Pre-heat your oven to 320°F.

2. Spread out in your tart crust the whole almond cream.

3. On top of it, insert the pears slices using the pattern of your choice.

4. Bake the tart for 1 hour and 10 minutes. The almond cream must be golden at the end of the baking. This long and low baking will give you a crunchy tart crust with a melting pear & almond filling.

5. Let the tart cool down to room temperature. Sprinkle some icing sugar for decoration. Enjoy!

*** That's it...Comforting...Flavorful...French Baking***