Pear, grapefruit & thyme tart recipe by Christophe Adam

Photo credit : Rina Nurra

INGREDIENTS FOR 6 PERSONS

Sweet dough

180 g flour t55 
90g icing sugar 
50g potato starch 
30g ground almonds 
1g vanilla powder 
1g fine salt 
95g unsalted butter 
50g whole egg (about 1 egg) 

Pistachio almond cream 

25g unsalted soft butter
25g caster sugar 
25g ground almonds 
5g potato starch 
20g whole egg (about 1/2 beaten egg) 
3g pistachio paste 

Passion fruit syrup

75g water 
35 g caster sugar 
1 vanilla pod 
1.5 tbsp. black tea 
1 passion fruit 

Assembling and finishing

1 grapefruit 
3 pears in syrup 
a few sprigs of thyme

METHOD 

1. Sweet dough : In a bowl, mix all the powders with the butter cut into cubes. Sand the whole thing with your hands. When the mixture is well sanded, gradually add the previously beaten egg. Mix with a spatula until the batter is smooth. Form a ball, then flatten it. Film it and reserve 2 hours in the refrigerator.

2. Pistachio cream : In a bowl, mix the butter in small cubes with the sugar using a spatula. When the mixture is homogeneous, add the almond powder and the potato starch, and mix. Gradually incorporate the egg, then finish by incorporating the pistachio paste.

3. Passion fruit syrup : In a saucepan, boil the water, the sugar and the split and scraped vanilla pod. Put the tea in a bag and let it steep for 3 minutes in the syrup. Add the passion fruit pulp and let cool.

4. Assembling & finishing : Preheat the oven to 170°C (th. 6), fan-assisted. Peel the grapefruit raw and remove the supremes. Cut the pears into quarters. Roll out the very cold sweet pastry to 2 mm thick. Cover a 22cm diameter tart mold. Add 100 g of pistachio almond cream, then arrange the grapefruit supremes and pear quarters. Bake for around 25 mins. When it comes out of the oven, pour syrup over the pie till the height of the crust and add a few sprigs of thyme.

Bon appetit !