Tag: chocolate

Oat florentine and how to adapt it

I based this nuts and oat florentine on oats and on a variety of nuts. There is lots of space for accommodation around your taste.

Florentine cereal bar

Those tips were posted in a post I placed on this blog and you may not have seen them. Consider them, they are convenient. Now feel free to add other ingredients than oats to your base, for example you can add silvered almonds or corn flakes.

Tip 1 – the “glue” of your oat florentine

In the end, I realised it doesn’t matter too much what you want in it, it is important to make sure you have a good “glue”.  I looked at a number of recipes for that binding mix and opted for my own made with simple ingredients (butter, honey and brown sugar), so no glucose syrup or other fancy items.

Tip 2 – you need salt in your florentine

One thing I did wrong was having a little too much salt. So put salt but go slowly, once added you can’t remove it

Tip 3 – solid ingredients: let yourself go! There are no limitations there. You need to think of the flavours you are combining together, this is crucial but not too hard. if not sure, stick to a few nuts, seeds or dry fruits in addition to the oats.

Mine was a little extravagant as I went through the pantry nuts jars: brazil nuts (cut), shredded coconut, pepitas, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts, macadamia pieces. And some dry cranberries.

Now for he new tips:

Tip 4 – bake your florentine until nice and brown, do not hesitate to go to a nice coloured brown as it means the florentine will be more solid. The caramel is what binds the ingredients together. If it is too light, it will not hold.

Tip 5 – the slice shape is so much easier to handle, but the florentine round shape is pretty.  My round shapes are enormous, too big really but fun!

Ingredients:
  • 250 g of rolled oats
  • 175 g of brazil nuts, cut in pieces
  • 50 g of shredded coconut
  • 100 g of pepitas
  • 100 g of walnuts broken
  • 150 g of roasted hazelnuts, cut in pieces (quarter size roughly)
  • 100 g of macadamia, also cut in pieces
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • Wet mix:
    • 100 g of melted butter
    • 120 g of honey (you may need to heat up the honey if it is solidified)
    • 150 g of brown sugar (or up to 200g if you like them quite sweet)
  • 180 g of dark cooking chocolate gently melted for the top
Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.  Line a baking tray or slice tray with baking paper.
  2. Prepare the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them.  Prepare the wet ingredients in another bowl.
  3. Mix dry and wet ingredients.
  4. if using a slice tin, press the mix to a thickness of 1.5 cm to 2 cm. If doing florentines, use a tablespoon of mix minimum and press down to a 1.5cm thick disc.  The width will depend on the amount of mix.
  5. Bake in the middle of your oven for 1/2h to 40 minutes until nicely brown (the time will depend on your oven)
    Florentine cereal bar
  6. Cool down before covering with melted chocolate. If doing a slice, cut when the chocolate has almost hardened.

Florentine cereal bar

 

Chocolate and raspberry profiteroles

If you want something different from the chocolate, vanilla or coffee eclair or choux, maybe try these chocolate raspberry profiteroles. You can choose to make choux or eclairs.

I will maybe never do the perfect shape choux or eclairs.  For one reason, this is not a goal of mine. Somehow I like some irregularities here in the shapes. It has something like “home” about it and leaves space for the imagination to work out which shape choux I am going to pick!  Here the shapes are quite irregular, I had a little extra choux dough which I topped a few pieces with.

choux raspberry chocolate

The cream inside these chocolate and raspberry profiteroles is not milk-based, but berry juice-based. The whipped cream makes it lighter than a full custard.

It is a bit of work, but well worth it!

choux a la framboise

Ingredients:

For the choux pastry, use the recipe I have on this page HERE.  If you have a Thermomix, feel free to use the recipe given with it, it works very well.  I strongly recommend you read the tips on the page linked here.  If the dough is too liquid, the choux will be flat and not dry well.

You don’t necessarily need to glaze the choux before baking (those in the photos didn’t get glazed).

For 18 good size choux, or here 22 (medium +)

  • 4 eggs
  • 150 g of plain flour
  • 75 g of butter
  • 250 mL of water
  • 1/2 tsp of table salt

For the cream

In this cream, we use the raspberry coulis we are about to make instead of milk for the custard. Once the custard is done, we need to cool it down before mixing into it the chocolate whipped cream.

  • 1.5 full eggs (the 1/2 came from the leftover one from the profiteroles) or 2 egg yolks
  • 300 g of frozen raspberries
  • 30 g of cornflour
  • 50 g of white sugar
  • 100 g of dark chocolate
  • 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa
  • 200 mL of liquid or thickened cream

To decorate

  • 75 g of dark chocolate (couverture if available)
  • a few fresh or frozen  raspberries (optional)

Method

The choux
  1. First, we need to get the choux in the oven.  Follow the recipe referred to above (HERE as well).  Remember to check your choux are well dry before removing them from the oven. If not sure take one out of the oven and push it open to check if it is dry inside.
The cream
  1. Place the raspberry with a couple of spoons of water in a saucepan and stew until all unfrozen. Use either a small blender or a mashing tool to puree.  Using a mesh strainer over a clean bowl, recover all the coulis you can. Discard the seeds.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the egg and sugar until pale, add then the cornflour and make sure there aren’t any lumps.  In a saucepan, place the raspberry coulis and the custard mix. Cook over medium-high heat until thick (make sure not to burn) then transfer to a bowl.  You will know when it is ready to transfer as the mix will have significantly thicken.  Make sure not to boil. Now, if you have time ahead of you, place the custard in the fridge, else in the freezer. it needs to be cold to add to it the chocolate – whipped cream.
  3. Melt the chocolate with a splash of milk.  Make sure it is all smooth, if necessary add another splash of milk. Add the cocoa powder using a small sieve to avoid the lumps. Whip the cream, once whipped, add the chocolate to it, mix until just combined. Do not worry if not perfect. Keep cold until the raspberry custard has cooled done to room temperature at least.  Mix the custard and chocolate whipped cream together.
The profiterole
  1. Now you can finish preparing your chocolate and raspberry profiteroles. Using a piping bag and a round nozzle fill the choux.  I don’t do a hole underneath (else it gets messy when you eat the choux) but a place on top which may have less resistance to the push of the nozzle. That spot will be covered by the icing/topping.
  2. For the topping of the chocolate and raspberry profiteroles, melt (overture if you have) chocolate over a bain-marie. Once the chocolate is melted, dip the top of each choux in it and place it back on the board. Add a fresh (or frozen) full raspberry on top.

The profiteroles will keep at room temperature for a few hours. Place in the fridge overnight.

choux raspberry chocolate

The giant choc chip cookie

The recipe for the giant choc chip cookie kept coming back on a Facebook cooking group. So I gave it a go. The recipe is from a French blogger Claire au Matcha.

Of course, this is very successful with children! Imagine, a giant cookie! I must say the first time I baked it I was quite excited also.

cookie geant

chip choc cookie cake

Ingredients:

For the giant choc chip cookie you will need a cake tin 20 cm wide, buttered and floured.

  • 180 g of plain flour
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 180 g of brown sugar
  • 120 g of soft butter (must be soft, not melted).  Apparently, you could also use margarine according to the initial author.
  • 1 pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
  • 1 egg
  • 80 g of dark chocolate chopped in 1/2 cm pieces
  • For the top, 100 g of milk chocolate chopped into pieces (you can use dark chocolate if you prefer)

Note: I find the recipe a bit too sweet as such, bring the sugar down to 160 g or use dark chocolate which is not as sweet

Method
  1. Butter and flour the baking tin
  2. Preheat the oven to 180°C
  3. Cream together the soft butter and brown sugar, add the egg and mix well
  4. Add together the flour, salt, baking powder and 80 g of chocolate. Mix only until combined. The dough is rather compact, don’t worry.
  5. Transfer the dough into the tin and spread. Place the 100 g of chocolate over the top and gently push down a bit.
  6. Bake for 25 min or until golden brown (like a cookie).
  7. Turn over on a cooling rack, then on a dish.

Sharing some tested recipes

Today I am sharing some tested recipes. I have not posted for a while.   Not that I have not been cooking.  Rather I did not get a chance to take photos and choose to spend time outdoors more, maybe to offset being so much on a laptop during this increased working from home period.

I have tried quite a few recipes found online, often randomly, at other times simply because I am looking up a specific ingredient.  I will share a few below.

At the same time, I have changed my baguette recipe. It calls for less starter and overall is the same ratio of flour and water. Why that you may ask.  I realised that my baguettes were not getting as many air pockets inside that they used to. The idea was to give the yeast more “food”.  The outcome is great.

Updated baguette recipe

I bake on a weekly basis minimum.  I make nine baguettes per batch.  This works for me, this is the amount I can bake in one go, all on the same oven level.  Some baguettes go to neighbors, others we will freeze on the day of baking and unfreeze as we need them. They come out quite surprisingly well.

The updated recipe is HERE.

sourdough baguettes sourdough baguettes

 

Tried from scratch

I have been getting these gorgeous grape tomatoes from our weekly fruits and vegetable delivery. I was trying a way to display them in a dish where these tomatoes are the hero of the dish.  The idea was to make a tomato tarte.  In practice, the taste was amazing, but the bottom was too soggy the first time. The second time, I added some ricotta as a bottom layer which seemed to sponge off the juices. I also baked it at the lowest level in the oven.  Get started with your version, for me, this is still a recipe in development.

BreadNbutterkids BreadNbutterkids

Tried online recipes…and yes, all chocolate-based…

Cocoa powder biscuits

I found this recipe of cocoa cookies when looking at how to use a large quantity of cocoa powder (actually raw cacao) I have at home. This has been adopted by my children, batch four is now baking!

 Oven-baked thick crepe

This was a recipe I tried for dessert for our dinner on the 14th of July.  I remember getting the feed from GoodFood and being curious about this recipe.  That evening, we also had snails in its parsley garlic butter as an entree! That recipe is for another day.

While crepes are a national food in France and come with regional variations, this oven-baked version is not a traditional dish. The recipe is fund and worth a try. Ours puffed up on one side which had a pretty cool effect.  For the chocolate sauce, I did not do a ganache (i.e. I did not use cream), we had run out of cream. I made a water-based chocolate sauce. I think it is better for this dessert, it is lighter.  I really liked the dark chocolate vs orange taste contrast.

Hazelnut chocolate torte

That chocolate hazelnut cake recipe is from BBC Food. I can’t remember how I stumbled on it. It is a similar type of cake to the one from Flour & Stone, which recipe is already on this blog and has become a favorite. It is gluten-free.  Verdict: a very good cake, more compact than the Flour and Stone one and similarly rich.  While I used a milk chocolate ganache for the topping, my preference is dark chocolate, just a matter of preference.

 

 

 

Salted caramel chocolate ice-cream

A salted caramel chocolate ice-cream is one of my favourite ice-creams! The ice-cream is based on a chocolate custard.  In itself, that base makes a wonderful chocolate ice-cream.  There would be different ways to introduce the salted caramel into the chocolate ice-cream. This version allows for a liquid caramel which can just be poured into the chocolate custard.

This salted caramel chocolate ice-cream is both strong in chocolate flavour and salted caramel flavour. If you are after a milder chocolate taste, omit the cocoa. If you are after a light salted caramel, only use one teaspoon of salt.

Ingredients:
  • 500 mL of full cream milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 100 g of sugar
  • 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (70%)
  • 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa
  • 300 cl of cream
  • good quality vanilla extract

For the salted caramel:

  • 120 g of sugar
  • 50 g of butter and 2 tablespoons of cream (a splash of cream)
  • 2 level teaspoons of salt

Method:
To  make the salted caramel (read this whole section before you start)
  1. Place the sugar in a thick bottom saucepan and heat up. Have the butter and  cream handy near you.
  2. When the sugar starts to melt and brown, shake the pan to ensure all of the sugar melts homogeneously.  The more you cook a caramel the bitter and less sugary it becomes. Here we are after a golden brown colour, which comes rather quickly.
  3. As soon as you have reached the desired colour, add the butter and cream and mix with a whisk away from the fire. The caramel has now stabilised. If the butter is not fully melted you can place the saucepan a few seconds over the hot plate.
  4. Add the salt and mix well.
To make the chocolate custard, the body of the ice-cream
  1. Heat the milk, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan. Stir from time to time to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn at the bottom and all ingredients are well dissolved.
  2. Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and give them a good mix.
  3. As soon as the milk mixture is about to boil, remove from the heat and pour a little of it over the eggs while mixing.  Then pour the rest, mix and return to the hot saucepan.  There may be enough heat in the pan for your custard to thicken and coat the back of a spoon straight away. If not, place on low heat and keep mixing slowly until the custard is done.  This is the trickiest part, do not overdo it or it will become grainy.
  4. Add the salted caramel and mix well.
  5. Place the custard in a container with a lid, allow to cool at room temperature for an hour, then in the fridge overnight. Note that if it tastes a little too salty or sweet: you still have the cream to add the next day.
Churning
  1. Before churning the next day, add in the cream.
  2. Place in the ice-cream machine and churn for about 45 minutes or until ready.
  3. Transfer to a box and freeze. You can choose to add some shaved chocolate to the ice cream at this stage.

Enjoy your salter caramel chocolate ice-cream!

Two slices we recently tried and liked

Today is about the story of two slices which we made recently. If I post about them it is also because we liked them!  Both recipes are easy to make. Give them a go!

The roasted almond and chocolate slice

I was looking on the internet for a quick recipe for dessert and I opened a french Facebook group on cooking. There was a post on quick dessert fixes and I found this recipe in the comments.  By placing the slice to cool and set with its chocolate topping in the freezer (must be horizontal!), you can have this for dessert! What really makes this recipe work is roasting the almond meal. It brings in so much flavour!

The recipe is HERE.

The salted chocolate and walnut caramel slice

Barre choco caramelThis is a caramel slice with a more complex toping.  The recipe is adapted from one in the Magazine Delicious.  The toping is dark chocolate with roasted walnuts (that makes them extra-crunchy) and small flakes of salt here and there which explode in your mouth when you don’t expect it!  The recipe is HERE.

And while I was preparing those pages today I almost forgot my Gateau Battu which rose and rose and is now baked and cooling down!

 

 

 

Salted chocolate and walnut caramel slice

This salted chocolate and walnut caramel slice is adapted from Delicious magazine.   The slices taste amazing. Since they are quite filling, there is here for a fair number of serves. I made mine in a  20×30 cm slice tray.  The recipe originally called for a 23 x 23 cm tray.

There are a few steps to make the salted chocolate caramel slice but all are pretty easy. To make it even easier, I advise using the caramel version of sweet condensed milk.

Barre choco caramel

Ingredients:

BASE

  • 220 g plain flour
  • 50 g  icing sugar, sifted
  • 180 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly

FILLING

  • 380 g sweetened caramel condensed milk (this is the volume of a can of condensed milk in Australia)
  • 50 g dark  brown sugar
  • 100 g dark corn syrup or glucose syrup
  • 100 g unsalted butter
  • 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
  • one teaspoon worth of good quality vanilla extract

TOP

  • 200 g dark 70% cooking chocolate
  • 15 g unsalted butter
  • 40 g roasted walnuts (roast them 15 minutes in a 160°C oven)
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes (if using a 23×23 cm tin, you will need to use slightly less)
Method
  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease the base and sides of the slice tin and line with baking paper.
  2. Place the flour, icing sugar and 1⁄4 tsp salt flakes in a heatproof bowl and stir to combine. Add the melted butter and mix with your hands to form a sticky paste. Press the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth out with an offset spatula.
  3. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the base is golden. If any bubbles form under the base while baking, use a skewer to gently deflate them.
  4. Now, for the caramel filling, place all the ingredients in a large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl on top of a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring well occasionally, until the butter has fully melted and emulsified. The consistency should be thick and gloopy and the colour just a shade darker. Set aside at room temperature. As soon as the base is ready, remove from the oven and immediately pour the caramel filling over the top.
  5. Reduce the oven to 120°C. Return the filled base to the oven and bake for 20 minutes or so. If it starts to brown too quickly, reduce the oven slightly and continue to bake. When cooked, the middle will feel set and a little rubbery and the sides should be starting to blister and turn light brown. Remove and leave to cool for 1-2 hours at room temperature.

    Tip – it is important to place the slice at the bottom of the oven at this stage, it allows cooking while avoiding the top to brown and darken too quickly.

  6. It is now time to prepare the topping.  Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir thoroughly then pour it over the top of the caramel. Smooth lightly with an offset spatula or tilt the pan to distribute the chocolate. Crush the walnuts with your hands and sprinkle over the top with the salt flakes.
  7. Leave to cool a little.  It should be fully set after an hour (this depends on the temperature of your kitchen as well). This salted chocolate caramel slice keeps in an air-tight container for a week.

Barre choco caramel

Roasted almond and chocolate slice

This roasted almond and chocolate slice is very easy to make and quick. The difference from the more frequent almond cake base is the amazing aroma that comes from having toasted carefully the almond meal!

You will need a 20 x 20 cm slice tin or brownie tin for this slice.

Ingredients:
  • 180 g of caster sugar
  • 4 large eggs (that means from a box of 12 eggs weighting 700 g min)
  • 200 g of  almond meal
  • A few drops of good vanilla extract
  • 100 g of melted butter (I use salted butter, the choice is yours)
  • Chocolate top: 150 g of dark chocolate and 70 g of butter
Method:
  1. Heat up the oven to 170°C.
  2. Place the almond meal in a large thick based frypan on medium to high heat (no need for anything else!).  While constantly moving the almond meal around slowly with a wooden spoon or wooden spatula, allow it to toast to a nice golden brown. Remove from the heat when you reach the colour and immediately transfer to a bowl (else the almond meal will further darken). Careful, this is hot.
  3. In a food mixer with the whisk (or by hand with a wide whisk!), whisk together sugar and eggs until light and fluffy like a mousse.
  4. Add the vanilla extract.
  5. Slow down the speed of the mixer if using one. Add the melted butter. Then add the roasted almond meal once it has cooled down.
  6. Line the tray with baking paper (use a bit of butter to help it stick well on the sides). Pour the bottom mix into the slice tin.
  7. Bake until light brown (you can insert a skewer to check or simply press the top of the base with the tip of your fingers, it will slightly spring back). Remove from the oven. Leave in the tray.
  8. Melt the chocolate and  70 g of butter. Once melted, mix until smooth, then pour over the base and use a spatula to spread across the base.
  9. Leave to cool until set. If you are short of time, place the tray in the freezer for 20 minutes.
  10. Cut into slices.  The slices keep well for a few days in an air-tight container. Do not refrigerate.

barre amande et chocolat

Two different chocolate cakes

I have recently made two different chocolate cakes.  These two different chocolate cakes combine additional flavours such as cinnamon, apple, or plum, chestnut. Interestingly both have dark rum.

One is a rich dense flourless chocolate cake with flavours of chestnuts and prunes and dark rum, the other one is a light chocolate mousse cinnamon, apple and dark rum dessert.

Gateau Mozart

Cinnamon chocolate mousse and apple gateau

Cinnamon chocolate mousse and apple gateau

This is a recipe from Pierre Hermé “Le Larousse du Chocolat“. Pierre Hermé is a famous french pastry chef, most famous for his macarons.  His cookbook Le Larousse du Chocolat gathers good chocolate recipes across France and some of Pierre Hermé as well.

I had not done the Gateau Mozart for some time (recipe HERE). Imagine three very thin disks of sweet shortcrust pastry with a subtle cinnamon flavour alternating with a light chocolate mousse which contains apples cooked in butter, a pinch of cinnamon and have been flambé !

Cinnamon chocolate mousse and apple gateau

Flourless chestnut, chocolate and rum cake

I found this recipe a while ago in the Delicious Magazine. I had cut out the recipe and placed in my cookbooks.  This recipe intrigued me because of the combination of chestnut and prune and rum.   With chestnut puree, you retain a lot of moisture and the flavour is undeniable. Years ago, I made up a chestnut steamed pudding. It is such a nice dessert. My curiosity was picked.

Flourless chestnut, chocolate and rum cakeFlourless chestnut, chocolate and rum cake Flourless chestnut, chocolate and rum cake

 

Deep dive to regional France cuisine to one of my anchor place

With this idea of deep dive to regional France cuisine to one of my anchor place, I am presenting you today with a specialy from the area of Somme and Pas de Calais. This is where I grew up.  I found this photo recently on my tablet, timely!  The regional France areas live a lot on the rythm of seasonal products. For example, in Australia, we have access to zuchinis (courgettes) all year long, well it is not so true over there, the season is in summer. During the courgette season you eat ratatouille or stuffed zuchini at least once a week!  The seasons were marked by their produce and by the (compusory) requirement to help harvesting berries, asparagus, beans when it was not removing nasty weeds in the fields.

Deep dive to regional France cuisine to one of my anchor place

This photo below is from my grandfather’s garden. My grandfather, when he was not reading, was often found in his garden.  As kids we were only allowed there with an adult in case we walked over crops and damaged the well formed alleys.  Only the rabbits managed to get under the wiring on one side to enjoy the goods! The garden contained a mix of fruits, vegies plans and flowers. There were many things: strawberries, raspberries, red current, black current, asperagus, apples, pears, courgettes, artichokes, potatoes, leeks, ….  It was manicured. It was magic. We loved going there!

my grandparents
My Grandfather, myself and other family members in my grandfather’s garden

Le gateau de Mamiche

My grandmother, Mamiche,  was an amazing person. While  I would not describe her as a person who loved cooking, she exceeled in eggs in jelly, beef tongue and this chocolate cake I am presenting today now called “le Gateau de Mamiche”. Le Gateau de Mamiche is a rich, dense and textured chocolate cake.  A bit like a mud cake, although not as heavy. Recipe HERE.

dense chocolate cake

 

Le gateau battu

gateau battu Picardie

Northern France cooking is generally known for its dairy based dishes: cream, milk, butter.

This cake is a bit like a brioche but contains much less butter.  Interestingly for a raised dough, it uses the eggwhites in snow.  Fresh, on the day, it is used in some areas to go with a glass of Champagne.  Else it is delicious toasted or not with a bit of jam. This is  what we did this time. The recipe is HERE.

gateau battu Picardie gateau battu et confiture

Gateau de Mamiche

The Gateau de Mamiche is a rich, textured chocolate cake.  Mamiche is my grandmother. This cake was one of her signature dishes, one that us, granchildren, really liked.

This cake needs to be cooled completely or almost before it is unmoulded or it will break.  It is very important to have the sugar well melted with the chocolate and butter before proceeding further into the recipe.  The oven temperature must be reasonably low to allow the cake to cook slowly and reduce the butter  to accumulate too much on top of the cake.  I have tried a few methods of mixing the ingredients, it seems that the best one is the most simple one: all in one pot type of approach.

Serve this cake as a mid-afternoon snack, a party treat or an element of dessert.

Serves 8+

Ingredients:
  • 250 g of 70% dark cooking chocolate
  • 250 g of butter
  • 250g of caster sugar
  • 250 g of flour
  • 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
Method:
  1. Butter and flour a log tin. Heat up the oven on 160°C.
  2. In a saucepan, place the butter and chocolate and allow to melt on low heat, mixing to ensure it does not burn. Add the sugar and mix until fully dissolved.
  3. Add the egg yolks. Mix
  4. It is now time to add the flour, mixing from the middle forming little circles extending.
  5. Beat the eggwhites to snow and fold in gently.
  6. Pour the batter in the tin. Place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out without chocolate.
  7. Allow to cool the gateau de Mamiche in the tin before turning on the serving dish.

dense chocolate cake dense chocolate cake

Easter 2020. Pear and no chocolate overdose!

Easter 2020 and pear. And chocolate of course.  Did you manage Easter without a chocolate overdose?

Not to worry, there was chocolate involved in our household.  We made an Easter bunny, two large Easter eggs and a myriad of small eggs.  Tempering chocolate is a great introduction for children to chemistry. Very messy though!

Poached autumn pear and its zabaglione mousse

This Easter 2020, for the meals I aimed at using some beautiful autumn ingredients I had gathered (in the shops considering we can’t travel): chestnuts, mushrooms, beans, a nice joint of lamb, different types of pears.  What to do? Slowly this idea came up.  Pear was going to be the queen of Easter 2020.  I ended up poaching some pears in a mix of squeezed orange juice and spices.  I was not going to discard the poaching liquid! The poaching liquid was the basis for a zabaglione mousse.  The zabaglione was delicious warm, as a  mousse, it has a great texture and works well with the poached pear.  I  prefered it warm butone of my kids loves it as a cold mousse, so that comes down to personal preferences.

poached pear poached pear in zabaglione

Other pear recipes

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I cook a lot with pears at the moment, obviously peak season. Check out these recipes that may inspire you.

Pear tarte tatin – works for pear and apple. The trick is to cook the fruits in a very buttery water bath before making the pie. The method behind the recipe comes from a reknown French pastry chef, Christophe Michalak.  PS- you can find real butter puff pastry in Asutralian supermarkets now!

Pear and chocolate flan – a rapid and very easy recipe. It is a crowd lover and can be used to make use of those pears about to go off.

A bit more elaborate, this pear and chocolate tarte is a winner and always makes an impression.  You will need to make a shorcrust pastry. It is a great dessert to finish off a diner party! – the photo I have is not exceptional, a good excuse to do it soon!

I like this more conventional pear and almond tarte.

Last year, I made this chocolate and standing pear cake. It was pretty good. I will put it back on my list for this month.

My last idea, the very simple Poire Belle Helene, one of my favourite classic.  Here with a little chocolate twist.

I can’t  believe I was about to forget the good old simple rural pear tarte.  it is the same recipe as the classic apple tarte or pretty much.  The evening classic of many families.  I grew up with those!