Frangipane Pear Tart

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
• Leave your baked tart shell inside the ring or tart pan. When you bake the tart with the filling, it will expand, so the tart ring will keep your pastry in shape. Pipe or fill the shell with the frangipane using an offset spatula. Level off the frangipane and top with the sliced pears. I did the classic design of fanned slices, but you can arrange them to your liking.
• Bake for about 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. It is done when the top of the frangipane is a golden color. Cool the tart before serving. Though perfect on its own, it is also delicious served with a side of Crème Chantilly or vanilla ice cream.
• Tip: When you are blind-baking your tart shell for this recipe, under-bake it a little. Since you will be baking it again with the filling, if you baked it to the perfect color, it might turn out too dark after the second baking.

Pâte Sucrée Method:

• Sift together the icing sugar and salt into a medium bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter on low speed with the sifted icing sugar for about 2 minutes until the butter is pale.
• Add in the egg and vanilla extract, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes and scrape down the sides of the bowl. It will look separated, but it will come together once you add the flour.
• When creaming the butter with the sugar and eggs, avoid incorporating too much air because the dough will crumble easily when you roll it out. The goal is to make a flexible and pliable dough to form into your tart pans.
• Mix in the flour on low speed for 30 seconds or so until there is no more dry flour and dough starts forming. Avoid over-kneading the dough. It will yield a tough pastry and it will shrink more when baked.
• Transfer onto a clean work surface, gather and form into a disk, wrap it in plastic and let it chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. You can also make this in advance for up to 3 days.
• Tips/notes:Dough scraps can be either re-rolled into more tarts or made into cookies.

Almond Frangipane Method:

• Sift together the almond flour, icing sugar, cornstarch, and salt into a medium bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until soft on medium, then add in the sifted dry mixture and continue mixing on low speed for a minute.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, add in the egg, the vanilla extract, and mix on medium for 2 minutes until frangipane is fluffy.
• Transfer the finished frangipane to a clean container or directly into a piping bag, and store it in the fridge until ready to use. You can make this up to 3 days in advance.
• Tip: You can replace the almond flour with other nuts such as hazelnuts or use a combination of different nuts.