Lime and Pear Tart with Shortcrust Pastry

We baked this to bring over to Andrew's parents place, Annie, his mum, made super delicious pea soup and spicy beef casserole. The tart was a success, and I must say, I liked it too. The lime flavour came through, but yet not overly tangy, easy to the taste buds. And the thin shortbread pastry adds a nice crunch. Very moist, tangy, crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.

Juice and zest of 2 large limes.
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 3 tsp of lime juice)
75g unsalted butter, cut into small squares
75g raw/castor sugar (I used a mix of both)
75g (1 cup) almond meal (ground almonds)
3 large eggs
2 tbsp Contreau (or any orange liquer)
1 tbsp double cream
1 pear, thinly sliced, soak in lemon/salt water to prevent from turning brown, until ready to put into tart.

Preheat the oven to 180degC fan force

Grease a 9 inch round tart tin.
Ground 5 pieces of shortbread biscuits** in a processor till it is like breadcrumbs.
Pour it into tart tin to form pastry base. Compress the crumbs till it forms an evenly thin layer of pastry bottom and sides.

Put the juices, zest, butter, sugar, cream, into a heavy based pan, and heat gently stirring till thickened.
Separately whisk eggs till creamy, add slowly buttermilk, and whisk till creamy.
Very very slowly pour whisked eggs into juice pan, and stir as you are pouring, continue to stir till thickened.
(Note, heat must be gentle so as not to overcook/curdle the egg). Easy test: pan must not be too hot for the hand to touch.
Fold in almonds, liqueur.
Pour 3/4 mixture into the tart tin with shortbread pastry.
Arrange the slices of pear on top of the filling.
Place into oven. And pour in rest of mixture.
Note: Tart tins are usually not deep, so to prevent spillage as you put the tart into the oven, it is suggested to pour rest of mixture after tart tin is in the oven. Also, if you have one of those with removable bases, it can be fumbly.
Lower oven temperature to 160 degree.
Bake for 28 minutes.

** Tip: I used leftover shortcrust pastry from making another tart a few days ago, and baked into shortbread. And now, I am using the shortbread to make the biscuit base for this tart.

Bon Appetite!