French Pear Tart with Almond Cream (Tarte Bourdaloue)

This French Pear Tart is an elegant beauty, and even more delicious — one of my favorite combinations. A crisp sweet buttery shortcrust pastry is filled with a luscious almond cream and covered with elegant fans of sliced pears which have been poached in a gorgeous potion infused with vanilla bean, bay leaf, peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon.
Its flavors are sublimely complex and yet so simple to achieve.

Jump to Recipe

In France you’ll find this classic tart with pears and almond cream in many bakeries, and for a reason — it’s amazing. It often goes by the name Tarte Bourdaloue, named after the small Parisian street where the pastry was invented in the 1800s, Rue Bourdaloue (which was named in the 1600s after the Jesuit Louis Bourdaloue). Or just tarte amandine aux poires.

We love this French Pear Tart. It’s impressive, easy to achieve, and looks and tastes like it came from a Parisian pâtisserie. I hope you will make it and enjoy it as much as we do at our house.

Pear Almond Tart Components

One of the nice things about preparing this tart is that different parts can be done in easy stages, and then assembled the day of. That way we can easily fit it in with whatever else we had planned for the day.

I like to make it in two stages:

• The day before, I usually mix up the dough for the crust, let it rest, and then blind bake the tart crust.
• The next day I poach the pears while whipping up the almond cream, then assemble and bake.

The Best Crust for a French Pear Almond Tart

A pre-baked crust is used for this pear tart. To make it easier on yourself, blind-bake the tart crust at least a day before.

Or keep a pre-baked or unbaked crust in the freezer for when you need it (It keeps well for up to two months, double wrapped to preserve quality and prevent freezer burn).

If you have a frozen crust that is unbaked in its tin, pop it in the oven still frozen (prevents shrinking) to blind-bake it (according to crust recipe). If you have a frozen crust that is already blind-baked, allow it to thaw for at least 15 minutes before filling.

What crust to use for French Pear Tart with Almond?

• I recommend a homemade sweet tart crust (pâte sucrée).
• If you are in a pinch for time, or want to use something ready-made, I recommend going with a high quality puff pastry dough made with pure butter. Look for it at gourmet groceries. (You will not need to blind-bake if you are using a ready-made puff pastry dough for the crust.)

Poached Pears

Before you head to the recipe, there a few things to keep in mind to make a beautiful tart, like what kinds of pears to poach, tips on choosing them at the market with your tart in mind, and how to cut your pears before poaching.

You Want Ripe Pears:

• So that you don’t end up with stone-hard pears at the last minute, it’s a good idea to procure the pears 4 or 5 days ahead of time and let them ripen in the sun.
• The day you assemble your tart, you want the pears to be ripe, yet still a little firm. For Bosc/Kaiser pears, the top starts to become wrinkly near the stem. For Williams/Bartlett pears, the pear gives slightly under gentle pressure.
• To speed up the ripening of your pears, you can put them in a paper bag with an already-ripe banana, or apple. The ethylene they produce will trigger the pears to ripen too.
• Once your pears are ripe, yet still a little firm, refrigerate them to slow further ripening until ready to poach. Or you can poach them ahead of time, and store them in their liquid in the fridge for a couple of days. Attention, the poached pears can discolor into unlovely shades of gray and perhaps black, if not submerged in their liquid.

In a pinch, you can poach unripe pears, and in fact poaching will help soften them and give them flavor — however, it will take up to a half an hour longer than poaching riper pears.

Poaching the Pears

• What if I skip poaching the pears? You don’t actually have to poach them. It does, however, add a beautiful layer of flavor complexity, especially when you come across tasteless pears. Plus, you will be rewarded with the pleasure of a beautiful aroma filling your kitchen!
• When Cutting the pears in half – When you are cutting your pears in half (lengthwise) to prep them, leave the stems attached to one of the halves of each pear, for a naturally beautiful look.
• Aromatics for poaching pears – All the aromatic poaching ingredients, which combine to make highly flavourful pears, are optional. So don’t worry if you are missing an ingredient. With just sugar and wine, it will still be delicious. I highly recommend at least half of the traditional vanilla bean, but they have become quite expensive! The cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon will already add lots of flavor. Don’t have peppercorns? Don’t worry about it. The lemon zest adds a nice zing, however… Bay leaf? Put it if you have it. If you have everything, even better. It will be truly wonderful. Don’t forget a little salt. It brings out all the flavors.
• Wine for the pear-poaching – Aim for a dry white wine. Any decent inexpensive white wine will really do, with the exception of sweet or bubbly. You can also make poached pears without wine. Use water if you don’t have wine, or prefer not to use it.

Mediterranean countries have a vast repertoire of sweets made with almonds at their foundation.

Almond cream (crème d’amande) is sometimes called frangipane, or frangipane cream. However, in France, frangipane = almond cream + vanilla pastry cream (custard). So, making frangipane requires the addition of pastry cream.

Almond cream and frangipane are often used interchangeably in recipes. However, we love a ratio of 100% almond cream (crème d’amande) filling in our pear tart. Almond cream is more concentrated, and has the same frangipane scent — without the extra work!

Assembling & Baking Tips

Assembling a French pear almond tart is fun and easy. With the tart crust made a day ahead, you can poach the pears while you whip up the almond cream, either in the food processor or by hand. Slice the pears at the last minute, because the pears will begin to darken if out of their poaching liquid for too long.

Glaze & Serve

Once it’s out of the oven, you can brush it with a glaze to keep it shiny. A glaze is quick and easy to make from jam or marmalade (instructions included in recipe below). Sprinkle powdered sugar around the edges before you serve it. It’s an elegant beauty, and even more delicious!

Enjoy the tart warm or at room temperature the day of, then store in refrigerator and enjoy within 3 days.

Storing

The entire tart can be frozen (if the separate components haven’t already been frozen), for up to a month. Wrap in plastic wrap, then in foil or another layer of plastic, to preserve quality and prevent freezer burn. Don’t forget that you can even freeze individual slices! (I just love to happen upon a couple of frozen slices of pear almond tart in the freezer!) Once thawed, enjoy cold, at room temperature, or warmed for about 15 minutes in the oven.

Recipe for French Pear Tart with Almond Cream

To make French Pear Tart with almond cream, also print the recipes for Almond Cream and homemade Tart Crust.