Pear Croustade with Lemon Pastry and Almonds

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour 
• 2 tablespoons almonds sliced
• 1 pound but bartlett pears firm cored ripe peeled thinly sliced
• 1 pound but bosc pears firm cored ripe peeled thinly sliced
• 0.3 teaspoon ground nutmeg generous ()
• 2 teaspoons juice of lemon fresh
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest finely grated
• 0.5 teaspoon salt 
• 5 tablespoons sugar 
• 0.5 cup butter unsalted chilled (1 stick)
• 8 servings whipping cream (for brushing)

Equipment

• bowl
• baking sheet
• baking paper
• oven
• whisk

Directions

1. Whisk flour, sugar, lemon peel, and salt in medium bowl.
2. Add butter; using fingertips, rub in butter until coarse meal forms.
3. Drizzle 1/4 cup cream over; toss with fork until moist clumps form, adding more cream by teaspoonfuls as needed if dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.
4. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before rolling out.
5. Preheat oven to 400°F.
6. Mix all pears, sugar, flour, lemon juice, lemon peel, and nutmeg in large bowl to coat.
7. Roll out pastry on sheet of floured parchment paper to 14-inch round.
8. Transfer crust on parchment paper to baking sheet. Mound pears in center of pastry, leaving 2-inch plain border. Fold pastry border over pears, crimping slightly.
9. Brush pastry edges with cream; sprinkle with sliced almonds.
10. Bake croustade until filling bubbles and almonds are lightly toasted, about 1 hour. Cool slightly.
11. Serve croustade warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream, if desired.