Tarte Bourdaloue
The tart is attributed to a nineteenth-century pastry cook on Paris's rue Bourdaloue, which gave it its name. The pears sink into almond cream, often called frangipane. Two details decide the result: the pears must be poached first and dried, since raw fruit releases water and the cream splits, and the cream goes in as a thin layer — it rises noticeably in the oven and, laid on thickly, would swamp the fruit.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Shortcrust 60 min
- Poaching the pears 35 min
- Blind baking 25 min
- Almond cream 15 min
- Baking 45 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake and chill the shortcrust
Rub the cold butter into the flour, icing sugar and salt to crumbs, add the yolk and iced water and bring together briefly. Chill an hour. Brief working is the condition of shortness — long working develops gluten and the base turns tough.
Ingredients: 220 g plain flour · 120 g butter · 60 g icing sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Poach the pears in vanilla syrup
Bring the water to the boil with the sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. Peel, halve and core the pears, add them to the syrup and poach 12–15 minutes, until a knife meets slight resistance. Not until soft — they cook further in the oven.
Ingredients: 5 pcs pears · 800 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pcs lemon
A knife meeting resistance — they finish in the oven.Dry the pears on a cloth
Lift out the pears and stand them cut side down on a cloth for 20 minutes. Wet fruit releases water into the almond cream, which splits and stays damp and dense instead of light.
Ingredients: 5 pcs pears · 800 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pcs lemon
Blind bake the shell
Roll the pastry out 3 mm thick and line a 24 cm tart tin, prick the base, weigh it down and bake 18 minutes at 180°C, then 5 minutes uncovered. The base should be pale gold — it bakes further under the cream, and overbaked now it turns bitter.
Ingredients: 220 g plain flour · 120 g butter · 60 g icing sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp salt · 2 tbsp water
Beat butter with sugar, then almonds
Beat the soft butter with the sugar for 4 minutes until fluffy, then work in the ground almonds, cornflour, rum and the eggs one at a time. Add the eggs slowly — all at once the mixture curdles.
Ingredients: 120 g butter · 120 g sugar · 140 g ground almonds · 2 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp cornflour · 2 tbsp rum
Eggs one at a time — all at once the mixture curdles.Spread the cream in a thin layer
Spread the cream over the base 1 cm thick, no more. The cream rises noticeably in the oven — laid on thickly it swamps the pears and the tart loses its characteristic look.
Ingredients: 120 g butter · 120 g sugar · 140 g ground almonds · 2 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp cornflour · 2 tbsp rum
Fan the pears and press them in
Slice each half crossways without separating the slices, fan it out and press it lightly into the cream, narrow end to the centre. Pressing stops the fruit floating to the surface.
Ingredients: 5 pcs pears · 800 ml water · 200 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pcs lemon
Fans pressed into the cream, narrow ends to the centre.Scatter almonds and bake 45 minutes
Scatter with flaked almonds and bake 45 minutes at 175°C, until the cream is golden and springy. Cool and brush with warmed sieved apricot jam — that gives the tart its patisserie shine.
Ingredients: 40 g flaked almonds · 3 tbsp apricot jam
Before you start
Tinned pears work too
Out of season, pear halves in syrup are a perfectly sensible substitute — skip the poaching, but dry them on a cloth for half an hour, as they hold considerably more liquid than freshly poached fruit.
Frangipane versus almond cream
Strictly, frangipane is almond cream blended with pastry cream, usually in a ratio of about two to one. Here we use a simpler almond cream with a spoonful of cornflour, which helps it hold its shape — a very common version in home recipes.
Best on the second day
Under a dome somewhere cool the tart keeps two days and is even better on the second, once the almond cream has set and taken on the scent of the pears. In a warm kitchen keep it in the fridge and take it out an hour before serving so the butter in the cream softens.
