Pear Almond Tart, a come back to blogging

Yes, I'm still alive (in case you were wondering) and I'm sorry I've been quiet for so long. A lot a things have been happening since the end of last year, some include me moving boxes, painting walls and building up swedish furniture. Normally this shouldn't prevent me from blogging, but there's been an additional factor: I've got a new partner in crime, let me introduce you to Einstein, my lovely, very fast growing girl puppy.

To anyone who has ever got a puppy, you know how it is: getting up at night, cleaning up a lot of mess and trying to teach the little one a few things as she grows. Don't worry this blog is not going to be about all the cute stories about my dog (though you might get to hear a few) or recipe of what to cook to your dog. This is still a cooking blog, and I did spend only little time cooking, but I'm still in charge of sunday's dessert, so there's been some (easy) baking going on.

This recipe has been done once before and works really well, it has a funny name in french "tarte bourdaloue" (based on the name of the street where a baker created this recipe in Paris, apparently) and it's a pear pie with an almond cream called "frangipane", you can serve it just like that, but I'm sure a version "à la mode" (with ice cream) would be lovely too.

Pear and Almond Cream Tart

For a 27cm pie dish

Pie dough

200gr of Butter at room temperature
300gr of Flour
A pinch of Salt
4 Tablespoons of Sugar
Cold Water

Almond Cream

120gr of Butter at room temperature
2 Eggs
120gr of Sugar
160gr of Ground Almonds

1 Can of Pears

In a bowl, place the flour and make a well in the middle, add the sugar, salt and cut the butter in little cubes and place it in the well aswell. Start rubbing the flour with the butter together to combime them, add the cold water slowly to make a dough. Place on your working surface with a bit of flour and work quickly to combine and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

To make the almond cream, in a bowl combine the eggs and the butter, beat with the sugar to make it smooth and than add the ground almonds. Set side.

Roll out the dough (you will have some extra left) and place it in your pie dish. Spread out the almond cream evenly on top. Cut the pears in slices, but not all the way to the top to fan them out on the almond cream.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Leave it to cool before serving.

Daring Baker - January 2013:Gevulde Speculaas

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!

This month's challenge was a whole new world for me, it does not ressemble the traditional "cakes" we bake around here, nor does it to cookies, it's more something in between. I love speculoos and almond paste, so that couldn't really go wrong anyway.

It was fun to play with spices, making your mix allows you to choose what you prefer. I substituted mace for nutmeg (because I couldn't get a hold on it), and used star anise and coriander in my mix. I felt a bit like some kind of apothecary mixing my spices, if I had have a cauldron, I may would have felt like Willow (yes, this is a Buffy reference, I'm a nerd, deal with it ;) )

Gevulde Speculaas

Recipe Speculaas Spices
Mandatory:
cinnamon 40 to 60 % of the total amount
ground cloves 1 or 2 parts
mace ½ or 1 part
ginger ½ or 1 part
Optional:
white pepper ½ or 1 part
cardamom ½ or 1 part
coriander ½ or 1 part
anise ½ or 1 part
nutmeg 1 or 2 parts

A convenient way to mix the spices is as follows:
Take at least 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, ½ or 1 teaspoon of mace and ½ or 1 teaspoon of ginger.
Add to taste ½ or 1 teaspoon of white pepper, ½ or 1 teaspoon of cardamom, ½ or 1 teaspoon of coriander, ½ or 1 teaspoon of anise, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.
Measure or weigh the amount of spices you have now, and add an equal amount of cinnamon.

Recipe Almond Paste
Ingredients:125 gm raw almonds
125 grams granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest

If the raw almonds still have their brown skins, remove them as follows. Bring water to a boil, add the almonds, cook them for one minute, drain immediately and let cool for a few minutes. Rub them between your fingers to remove the skins.
Grind the almonds for one or two minutes in a food processor, until you see nothing but very small pieces. (Or skip this step if you use ground almonds.)
Add the sugar, and grind for another one or two minutes. It must be very fine after this step.
Add the egg and let the food processor combine it - if it is powerful enough. Otherwise you will have to combine it with your fingers.
Store the almond paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Although the flavor gets better as days pass by, it is not wise to store the paste for too long, as it contains a raw egg. For the same reason you should not eat the paste unbaked.

Recipe Speculaas Dough
Ingredients:250 gm all purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150 grams brown sugar, firmly packed
a pinch salt
15 gm speculaas spices
175 gm unsalted butter

Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl.
Cut the butter in dices and add.
Knead until smooth.
Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry.
Wrap in clingfoil and put in the refrigerator for two hours.
You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the flavor. Freezing is no problem.

Assembling and baking the Gevulde Speculaas
Ingredients:speculaas dough
almond paste
whole almonds without skins for decoration
1 large egg

Directions:1. Grease the pan.
2. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas 4
3. Divide the dough into two portions.
4. Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly as big as the baking pan.
5. Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom.
6. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water.
7. Smear 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan.
8. Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of clingfoil, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and put it on the dough in the pan. (If you chose to make the paste soft, you can smear the paste instead of rolling it.)
9. Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and smear the next 1/3 of the egg over it.
10. Now put the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as possible.
11. Smear the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough.
12. Decorate the pastry with the almonds.
13. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven.
14. Let cool completely in the pan, then cut it in portions as you like.
15. If you wrap the stuffed speculaas in clingfoil, after it has cooled completely, you can store it a few days at room temperature. Freezing is possible, but fresh speculaas tastes better.