Pear and almond pie
Ingredients
Shortbread dough
- 200 g flour
- 50 g sugar
- 50 very soft butter
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 tsp natural bitter almond extract
Almond cream
- 80 g very soft butter
- 80 g almond powder
- 70 g cane sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp natural bitter almond extract
Poached pears
- 3 williams pears of medium size and still a little firm
- 50 cl water
- 50 g sugar
- 1 split vanilla bean
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- In a bowl, mix the flour with the soft butter cut into cubes with your fingertips to obtain a sandy texture.
- Beat the egg with the sugar, salt and almond flavouring. Make a hole in the flour/butter mixture and pour in the beaten egg.
- Mix well to form a ball. You can add a little water if needed.
- On a sheet of baking paper, flatten the ball of dough and place it in a pie tin.
Pear poaching
- In a saucepan, heat 50 cl of water with the sugar. Whisk a little to dissolve the sugar. Bring to the boil.
- Meanwhile, peel the pears, cut them in halves and remove the core.
- Once the water boils, add the vanilla bean and the pears cut in halves. Lower the heat and cook for about ten minutes until the pears are tender.
- Remove the pears from the water, squeeze them gently to remove excess water, and cut them into slices.
Preparation of the almond cream
- In a salad bowl, mix the butter cut in small dices with the sugar with your fingers.
- Then, add the eggs and whisk to obtain a creamy texture.
- Add the almond powder and the almond aroma.
Pie preparation
- Pour the almond cream over the shortbread dough.
- Carefully arrange the sliced pears with a spatula on top of the almond cream, arranging them in a star shape.
- Sprinkle with slivered almonds and bake for about 30 minutes at 180°C. Check the cooking time with the tip of a knife after 25 minutes.
Notes
Note that I use a little less quantity than other recipes for the almond cream, for a slightly lighter pie! But you can decide to add more!
You can test this recipe by changing the ingredients, e.g. by replacing almond powder with hazelnut powder (or a mixture of both), or by replacing pears with other fruits (apricots, apples, cherries...).