Tarte Amandine Aux Fruits

One of my readers asked for a recipe for the tarte amandine that I made for Ken's birthday. I'm only too happy to oblige. Ken found the recipe on a French recipe site, I think. The first time I made this (link) I sliced the fruit, pears in that case, and arranged them on top of the filling.

Ready to go into the oven.

The second time, I used canned peach halves (link) and pressed them directly into the filling. The third time (link), I used pears again, but pressed the unsliced halves directly into the filling. Here's the recipe:

Tarte amandine aux fruits

Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF)
Cream together until light and fluffy:

• 100 g softened butter
• 100 g granulated sugar

Add:

• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• 100 g finely ground almonds (almond powder)
• 25 g all purpose flour, sifted
• 10 cl fruit liqueur (your choice)

Line a buttered tart pan with:

• 1 standard pie crust

Blind-bake the crust and let it cool slightly. Add the filling to the baked crust. Press into the filling:

• Canned fruit halves (peaches, pears, apricots) or fresh ripe fruit halves

Use enough fruit to fill up whatever size pan you are using. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, glaze the fruit with:

• apricot (or other fruit) glaze (press a few tablespoons of apricot jam through a sieve and heat in the microwave until it thickens a bit. If it's too thick, add a dash of the fruit liqueur or water).

Continue baking until done. Let cool. Serve.

The glazed and finished tart.

For a pear tart, you can use pear liqueur (poire williams). For any fruit, you can use always use kirsch (cherry liqueur).

If your fresh fruit isn't quite ripe, you could poach the halves in a bit of syrup prior to making the tart.

You can also use a sweet crust (pâte sablée) instead of a standard pie crust.