The tarte Bourdaloue is a pie with pears and almonds; created by a Parisian pastry chef in the nineteenth century. This dessert is a variation of the amandine (almond tart).

French Pear pie (Tarte Bourdaloue)
Almond cream, pears and some almonds: a dessert for real gourmets.
Ingredients
Almond sweet short pastry
- 120 g softened butter
- 75 g confectioners sugar
- 30 g almond powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 egg (beat a little with a fork)
- 1 teaspoon liquid vanilla (1 packet of vanilla sugar or 1 vanilla bean)
- 200 g sifted flour
Almond cream
- 100 g softened butter
- 100 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 100 g almond powder
- 2 teaspoons sour cream
- 3 pears
More
- 15 g butter (melted)
- 1 teaspoon sledding almonds
Instructions
Almond sweet short pastry
- Sift flour and powdered sugar into a bowl or on the kitchen table. Add almond powder and the softened butter. Mix with your hands until you get a crumbly mixture.

- Add egg and liquid vanilla.

- Mix everything very quickly to form a ball. The dough is now ready.

- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or freeze if you won't bake it in the next few days.

Almond cream
- Beat butter and sugar with a mixer. Add eggs, cream and almond powder.

Preparing the pie
- Preheat the oven to 370F. Roll out the dough between 2 layers of parchment paper.

- Transfer the dough to a pan, press it down and on the sides of the pan. Cut the excess dough. Poke holes on the entire surface with a fork.

- Spread the almond cream evenly over the dough.

- Peel the pears and cut them in half. Remove the seeds. Cut into regular thin slices.

- Arrange the pear slices nicely. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with almonds.

- Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown. Remove pie from oven and cool. You can sprinkle lightly with icing sugar before serving.

