TWD French Pear Tart

This is why I love being part of TWD - I bake things that I normally wouldn't try on my own.  I've always classified pies and tarts to be similar and my pie making ability leaves a lot to be desired. So, I've never attempted a tart, not to mention I didn't own a tart pan until last week when I discovered our local restaurant supply store. Instead of buying one large tart pan, I bought 4 mini pans.

Anyway - back to my tarts.

This week's recipe was courtesy of Dorie Greenspan herself!! So, it made my foray even more exciting knowing that the author of our book picked the recipe for the week.

TASTE TEST: Incredible!  Another household hit - not overly sweet and great flavors.  These are definitely worth making again.

I made a few variations -

• I used 4 mini pans
• I ran out of almonds and had to use walnuts, the only other nut on hand.  I really have to buy almonds at Costco - I run out ALL the time.
• Because of the smaller pans, I didn't use all the almond cream or the dough.
• My cooking time was decreased about 13 minutes - probably because of the smaller pans.
• Oh, and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how the world we were supposed to lay out the pears, so I tried to make mine look like the spokes of a wheel - key word: 'tried' =)

Here is what my crusts looked like:

The crust was very simple  and straightforward.

Here are my tarts before baking:

And my final product: