TWD: French Pear Tart

There was no way that I was skipping this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. Even if I wanted to I couldn't. Even if I absolutely hated pears I still would've made this recipe. Why? Because the host for this week's recipe is none other than Dorie Greenspan. Oh yes... that's right! The fantastic, amazing author of Baking: From My Home To Yours chose the recipe for us this week. How cool is that? I don't know... maybe I'm weird, but I think that is awesome! So, for me, making this tart was a must. Dorie picked it and I would trust in Dorie! :)

I decided to make this tart over the past weekend since Nathan and I were having our "Thanksgiving" dinner. It made a wonderful addition to our dessert table. (Yes, you read correctly. Even though we only had 5 adults, there were two pies, two cheesecakes, and the pear tart!)

The tart dough was a cinch to put together. The recipe calls for the use of a food processor, but I didn't feel like pulling it out and I made it by hand. It tasted fantastic... very shortbread like. YUM! I loved the almond cream, too! I snuck a few tastes before cooking the tart and it was so delicious. And it was even better baked up with the pears!

My only complaint about this recipe has nothing to do with the recipe, just the baker! My pears looked ugly on top. I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Some looked like squids just sitting on top of the tart. This is the reason there is no picture of the entire tart!

Thanks to Dorie Greenspan for picking this week's recipe and thanks to Laurie for starting this wonderful group a year ago! I have had so much fun baking with this group for the last 5 months and I look forward to many more delicious recipes. Check out the TWD blogroll for what I'm sure will be some amazing looking tarts!