Tarte Bourdaloue (French Pear Almond Frangipane Tart)
Quick answer
A crisp tart shell is lined with frangipane - a mixture of almond flour, butter, egg, and sugar - then topped with halved or sliced pears and baked until the almond cream...
What makes this special
- Frangipane cream rises around poached pear slices during baking to fill the tart shell of Tarte Bourdaloue.
- Frangipane of almond, butter, egg, and sugar puffs around the pear slices as it bakes
- Pear juices seeping into the almond cream add a light freshness to the rich filling
Key ingredients
Core cooking flow
- 1 Preheat the oven to 180C and set the tart shell on a baking tray.
- 2 Mix 90 g softened unsalted butter with 90 g sugar until smooth and slightly lighter.
- 3 Add 110 g almond flour and 0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract.
A crisp tart shell is lined with frangipane - a mixture of almond flour, butter, egg, and sugar - then topped with halved or sliced pears and baked until the almond cream rises around the fruit and turns golden. The frangipane puffs gently in the oven, enveloping the pear in a dense, moist almond layer, while juice from the fruit seeps into the cream and lightens its richness. Poached pears produce the most tender result and cook evenly, but raw pears work if sliced thin enough to soften during baking. Overmixing the frangipane compacts the crumb and eliminates the delicate rise, so the batter should be combined only until the ingredients are incorporated. Scattered sliced almonds on top before baking add visual appeal and an extra layer of nutty crunch. This tart originated on Rue Bourdaloue in Paris and remains one of the essential recipes in French patisserie.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Prep
Preheat the oven to 180C and set the tart shell on a baking tray.
Drain canned or poached pears very well, or slice raw pears thinly so they can soften fully during baking.
- 2Season
Mix 90 g softened unsalted butter with 90 g sugar until smooth and slightly lighter.
Add 1 egg and stir just until the mixture looks even, scraping the bowl so no butter streaks remain.
- 3Heat
Add 110 g almond flour and 0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Fold gently and stop as soon as no dry almond flour is visible, because overmixing makes the baked frangipane dense instead of lightly risen.
- 4Heat
Spoon the frangipane into the tart shell and level it with a spatula.
Keep the layer even and below the rim, since the almond cream will puff as it bakes and can overflow if overfilled.
- 5Prep
Arrange the 2 pears in thin fans over the frangipane and press them lightly to anchor them.
Leave small gaps between slices so the cream can rise around the fruit instead of pushing it aside.
- 6Heat
Bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes, until the top is golden and the center no longer wobbles.
Cool before slicing so the frangipane sets, then brush lightly with warm apricot jam if desired.
After the steps
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Galette des rois is the traditional French pie eaten during Epiphany in January, made from two rounds of puff pastry enclosing a filling of almond frangipane cream. Puff pastry is built from hundreds of alternating layers of dough and butter that have been folded and rolled repeatedly. In the oven, the moisture inside the butter converts to steam and forces the layers apart, causing the dough to expand dramatically and set into a structure of thin, translucent sheets stacked one on top of the other. When the baked galette is cut, those layers are visible in cross-section, and the pastry shatters into golden flakes with any pressure - the defining textural characteristic of well-made puff pastry. The frangipane filling is made from butter, eggs, sugar, and ground almonds whisked together into a smooth cream. It bakes into something dense and moist, with the almond flavor concentrated and deepened by the heat in a way that raw almond paste cannot replicate. Before baking, a small porcelain figurine called a feve is pressed into the frangipane and sealed inside. Whoever receives the slice containing the feve is crowned king or queen for the day with a paper crown that typically comes with the galette from the bakery. The top of the pastry is scored with a sharp knife in decorative patterns of leaves, spirals, or geometric designs, and brushed with an egg wash that caramelizes in the oven to produce a lacquered golden surface with the scored lines standing out in relief. In France, bakeries sell galette des rois throughout January, and sharing one with family or colleagues is a significant social ritual at the start of the new year.
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