Tarte Bourdaloue

A tarte bourdaloue is a pear and almond tart, and it is incredible! The crust is pâte brisée, which is flakey, buttery, and not very sweet. It's filled with the same crème d'amandes as we used in the fruit tart. Except, instead of a very thin layer, it's a nice thick one. And then on top, we put five pear halves, sliced and fanned. In between the pears are sliced almonds; they toast up all nicely when the tart is baked. Before baking, we coated the pears with melted butter and vanilla sugar so they caramelized really nicely. Then we just spread apricot glaze. This was incredible, if I do say so myself. The crust was close to perfect, the crème d'amandes was tender and delicious, the almonds on top were a wonderful complement to the almond in the tart, and the pears were tender and beautifully sweetened from the vanilla sugar and glaze.