TWD: French Pear Tart - AKA the day my taste buds danced

I hope you are wearing your Tuesday best, dear reader. We have company today. ::whispering:: You know, the fancy kind. ::clearing throat:: Now, go wash your face and put on a skirt. Dorie's in town!

Yes, Ms. Bakey McBakerson herself chose this week's recipe and leave it her to pick a gosh darn winner and one that is perfect to serve to company. You can find the full recipe on her site or in her amazing book, Baking From My Home to Yours.

This week, TWD celebrates one year of baked fresh weekly goodies. I joined on Feb 19 and have been getting my bake on ever since!

::TWD high five, ya'll::

This week's recipe, French Pear Tart, seemed pretty overwhelming at first glance: a crumby crust filled with fresh almond cream topped with poached fruit and baked until golden bubbly?! Whoa.

Then I remembered that I've made the crust before as well as the cream. The only new thing was poaching the pears which if I totally bombed, I could pretend I never tried and go with canned instead. Well, no fake-outs needed here. I poached those babies and they were delicious!

Poaching pears

The recipe did take a bit of time but hey, what are holiday weekends for? Between the tarts and the amazing tacos I made, I think I spent about 8 hours in the kitchen on Sunday. Well, it was all totally worth it!

I didn't have the right size tart pan so I used mini tart pans instead. I made four and had a bit of dough left over. I should have had some cream left over but I spooned it all in and the pans overflowed onto the baking sheet a bit. Oh well! I suppose that's why Dorie suggested using it. She is such a smartie.

After I made the crusts and cream and poached the pears, I was ready to assemble. I couldn't decide what design to make with my pears so I varied it on all four tarts. Like I mentioned above, the pans bubbled over but that part just came right off and no one was the wiser.

The final result was that the tarts all looked cute and the one I ate was really tasty - not too sweet, just a bit nutty, perfectly poached (if I do say so myself) and delicious!

I will most definitely make this one again. Now, head over to the TWD site, click the links and show my fellow bakers some appreciation. (They could use a foot rub, too!)

This week's song is T A R T (L-O-V-E) by Nat King Cole

T is for the way you taste to me

A is for the almond cream I need

R is really, really extraordinary

T is totally more than any tart that you've adored

treats are all that I can give to you

tarts are more than just dessert for two

tart in tummies (yum!) can make it

burn my tart and I'll hog the blankets!

tarts were made for me and you

TWD - Lemon & Orange Tarts!

UPDATE: You can see the pics here.

I'm a day late posting this week as I wasn't feeling well. But, I'm back to 100% and ready to share my results!

Every week, I think I can't possibly get more excited about a chosen recipe, but then I do! This week's treat, The most extraordinary french lemon cream tart was chosen by Mary of Starting from Scratch. Because there are some strong aversions to lemon among the group ::gasp::, this week we were given a choice and could make the Fresh Orange Cream Tart instead.

Well, being that I love all things citrus and my blog is orange-ified, I decided to make both tarts!

The orange tart was just OK to me but I used blood oranges for the first time and don't think I knew what I was getting. I'd make this again but probably use clementines or some other type of tangerine.

The lemon tart, on the other hand, was soooo yummy. I did not take it to work. I did not share it, except with by BFF and her fiance.

The crust was amazing but a little hard for my taste. When I make this again (and I plan to ASAP) I'll cut a minute off the time and see if that softens it up a bit. Or I could use a bit less and have a little bit thinner crust.

I did have some trouble getting the creams up to 180 degrees but I hadn't read the tips and used a glass bowl rather than a metal which added to the delay in heating time.

The other trouble I was using my blender. This has nothing to do with the recipe but rather my ignorance in blender use. I couldn't get it to work so I started twist the blender which separated the glass from the base and spilled lemon cream everywhere. Lucky I moved over a bowl asap and salvaged 90% of the luscious lemon cream.

Head on over to Tuesday's with Dorie and see what how my buddies fared this week!

Pics will come later. Hubs and I got a new camera over the weekend and I have to figure out how to access the pics.