Tarte aux Poires (Pear Tart)

I've never met Paule Caillat, but when I finally see her next month, I'm going to hug her.

Not only is she wonderful, she has also been so patient with my constant queries these past several months. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to book a class with her but all my planning & frequent e-mailing ended in anti-climax when I discovered I wouldn't be able to take one class I was looking forward to because of non-availability and another clashed with something else I will be doing that same day. When I found out the latter, I was sure Paule might want to whack me over the head with a cast-iron skillet for being such a nuisance. But didn't I already establish that she's wonderful?

She really is. For forgiving me. And for being the source of what has become my favorite sweet tart dough recipe.

The last time I made a tart inspired by Paule, I got the creme d'amandes (almond cream) wrong. Well - almost wrong. I hadn't known what creme d'amandes was and had used the first random recipe that I found through google search. It turns out, a much superior recipe was sitting right under my nose the entire time. If only I had bothered to consult BFMHTY. 

So here's my latest attempt at making a tart: I used Paule's recipe for sweet tart dough but entirely substituted the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour this time. The almond cream filling comes from BFMHTY  (recipe can be found on Dorie Greenspan's blog ) & is topped with freshly poached pears d'anjou. I resisted the urge to use either ginger or cloves in the poaching liquid because Paule warned that they might overpower the delicate flavor of the almond cream. But I did use a vanilla pod. 

The tart shell is par-baked for 7-8 minutes at 350F and then cooled before filling with the creme d'amandes & topping with poached, sliced pears. It goes back in the oven & needs to be baked for 45-50 minutes or until the almond cream is puffed and brown on top. 

Taking a bite out of this tart is complete bliss. I especially love the creme d'amandes which came out so much better than my previous attempt!  I told Paule that the first time I ever had tarte aux poires was in Disneyland &, while it may have been better looking than what you see here, I cannot say that it came anywhere close to this one in flavor.

Fig & Frangipane Tart

I have been obsessed with the idea of this tart ever since I saw the tour of Paule Caillat's kitchen here. 

Paule, the owner and operator of Promenades Gourmandes, offers cooking classes & gourmet walks in Paris. I'd written to Paule during the summer in order to make reservations for my 'Paris Encore' trip in December which, quite sadly, had to postponed indefinitely. When I saw her kitchen & the photos of her fig tart I had to write to her again & ask for the recipe. It looked so beautiful. 

Paule wrote back & told me the tart was a simple sweet tart dough with crème d'amandes - which she said was butter blended into equal amounts of almond meal, sugar and 1 egg & I could use any fruit on top. I had to do a little research to find a recipe for crème d'amandes which I had initially thought would be almond pastry cream. But another look at the ingredient list told me it wasn't. And so what she probably meant was Frangipane. 

Once again, there were so many recipes for frangipane that it was hard to pick one to work with. So I just went with the first and simplest one that showed up in my google search (found it at About.com) and made the Frangipane before I started working on the tart shell. Here's the recipe I used:

Frangipane (makes enough to fill one 9" tart shell)

barely adapted from About.com

1/2 cup ground almond meal (I ground my own almonds - I think it took about 120g to make 1/2 a cup)

1/4 cup granulated sugar (I could have used a little more)

1 egg

3 tbsp butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla vanilla extract

Blend the butter with the almond meal and sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla extract, mixing till smooth. Set aside. 

Now there's no reason for me to look at recipes for sweet tart dough anywhere when I've had such great success with Dorie Greenspans' Sweet Tart Dough. However, Paule was the inspiration for this experiment and her recipe involves a completely different, very intriguing technique which I've really wanted to try out since I saw it on David Lebovitz's blog. 

The recipe requires butter, water and oil to be  to be heated in the oven after which flour is thrown into the melted mixture and everything is stirred together till it's smooth. There's no need to chill the dough or to even roll it - all you  have to do is simply press it into a pan and bake. You don't even have to add baking weights because all it needs is a few pricks with with tines of a fork. That's all. really. 

It is so simple to make and yields such a beautiful, flaky pastry shell. This dough will not let you down. Try it out the  next time you decide to make a tart. 

 Paule Caillat's French Pastry Dough

(by David Lebovitz)

(do head over to his blog to see DL's photo tutorial here)

90g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 slightly rounded cup all purpose flour


Preheat the oven to 410F. 


In a medium-sized oven-proof bowl, combine the butter, oil, water, sugar and salt. 


Place the bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and begins to brown just around the edges. 


Carefully remove the bowl from the oven (be very careful here - it really sputters!), throw in the flour and stir it quickly. I used a whisk initially & worked it until I had large clumps of dough - then I switched over to a spatula and gave it a stir or two after which it formed a perfect ball of dough. 


I divided the dough into 4 & transferred it to my mini-tart molds, patted it down with the spatula and then worked with my fingers to press it up the sides. I allowed the shells to cool and then pricked them with a fork before par-baking them for 5 minutes. One of the shells had puffed up a little when I took it out, but I simply patted it down with the back of a spoon. 


Once the shells were completely cool, I divided the frangipane between them and baked them for 15 minutes (Paule's instructions were to bake the tart for a total of 30 mins, adding the fruit after 10 minutes - but I was using small molds so I increased the amount of time). I then layered the sliced figs on top and baked the tarts for 30 - 35 minutes. I think I over-baked a little, since I wasn't sure how long to bake them. And so my tarts looks nothing like Paule's tart, but I loved creating them.