Tag: cooked pear

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!

Zabaglione mousse with its autumn pear

Zabaglione mousse with its autumn pear or as I wanted to name it Mousse sabayon a la poire d’automne.  More simply it is a beautiful poached pear in a pear mousse.

There are three ways the pear flavours and autumn tones come in: the colours are the yellow and brown of the autumn season, the pear is poached in an orange and spice syrup, the same syrup is then used in the zabaglione mousse.

For the poached pear in autumn syrup, click HERE to the recipe.

Serves 4 or 5 .  The recipe here ends up making 5 mousse servings, so either add a pear to the recipe of the poached pear if there are five or you will just fill one ramequin for an extra serve the next day.

For this recipe you need a wide whisk.

Ingredients:
  • 4 (or 5) poached pear (recipe HERE)

    poached pear
    Poached pears you will need for this recipe, you will also need its cooking syrup.
  • 300 mL of the poached pear syrup, strained through a  sieve.
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 50 g caster sugar
  • 1 portion of cognac (optional)
  • 1.5 gelatine leaf titanium strength (5 g)
  • 300 mL of cream, whipped.
  • Rosemary to serve
Method:
  1. Place 3 cm of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, once boiling, allow to simmer.
  2. Put the gelative leave in a bowl of cold water.
  3. In a large metal bowl, place together the syrup, egg yolks, caster sugar, cognac.  Give it a good mix.
  4. Place the bowl over the simering water.    From that time you need to whisk until the mix at least doubles in volume, becomes clear and becomes very foamy. It will also thicken. This takes about five minutes.  making a zabaglione
  5. Remove from the heat. Drain the gelatine and add it to the zabaglione, mix well. Allow to cool for a few minutes while you sort out your serving dishes, then fold through the whipped cream.
  6. Distribute between five ramequins or bowls.   Place the pears in the middle of each dish. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Add a few leaves of rosemary before serving.

poeached pear in zabaglione mousse

Standing pear chocolate cake with its sauce

For this standing pear  chocolate cake, you will need some small pears, preferably ripe, although not so much they crumble in your fingers.  If your pears aren’t ripe, you should cook them partly in a sugar syrup . Note, there are many ways with sugar syrups for pears, for example, if you don’t have any wine for the poaching, you can use orange juice.  The flavour will be different but still beautiful.

As for the nutmeg, I was experimenting and probably put a little too much (1/2 teaspoon) which was not overbearing but maybe not to everyone’s taste. I have reduced it in the recipe. You could also put a pinch of cayenne pepper or medium chilli powder.

pear chocolate dessert

Ingredients:

For the cake

  • 5 small ripe pears, peeled and cored from the bottom, stem on
  • 4 eggs (about 60 g each)
  • 160 g of sugar
  • 200 g of butter, melted
  • 30 g of hazelnut meal
  • 140 g of plain flour
  • 1 tsp of raising powder
  • 1/4 tsp of freshly grounded nutmeg
  • 60 g dutch cocoa

For the chocolate sauce (from Pierre Herme):

  • 250 ml of water
  • 125 ml of cream
  • 130 g of dark 70% chocolate
  • 70 g of sugar
Preparation:
  1. Line the bottom and side of a springform pan, about 25 cm wide (it can be less but no wider).
  2. Preheat oven to 170°C.
  3. Mix the eggs and sugar until quite moussy. Add in melted butter, nutmeg, cocoa powder and hazelnut meal.
  4. Add in the flour and raising powder.
  5. Pour the batter into the lined mould, placing on pear in the middle and the other pears evenly as a ring.  Make sure there is batter underneath each pear.
  6. Bake until just set (about 30-40 minutes, it varies between ovens), the cake will show a few cracks on the sides and the top does not appear wobbly when the cake tin is slightly pushed.  Allow the cake to cool down a little (or more if time allows) before transferring to a serving plate.   The cake will collapse in the middle as it should still be gooey.
  7. To prepare the chocolate sauce, cut the chocolate in small pieces.  Place in a thick based saucepan the water, sugar, cream and chocolate.  Slowly heat up and stir until smooth with a wooden spoon. Bring to boiling point and simmer while stirring constantly until the sauce becomes unctuous and covers the back of the wooden spoon.  Use the sauce hot, or allow to cool at room temperature and use warm.  The excess sauce keeps in the fridge for two weeks.

Tip-  transferring the cake can be a little tricky.  I use the removable metal bottom of a tart tin as a very large spatula. 

Tip – Keep the cake at room temperature if leftovers (i.e. not in the fridge).

pear chocolate dessert