Posts tagged pear

A huge chocolate craving – Double chocolate-pear tart

Mar 27th

Une grosse envie de chocolat – Tarte aux poires et double chocolat

Amis du chocolat, Bonjour!!

This is the chocolate addict dessert par excellence! When you have a chocolate craving, this tart is the perfect choice…chocolate crust and chocolate filling, how much more chocolate can you have? I am not a chocoholic, but I do love chocolate, besides what’s better with espresso than a piece of very dark bitter chocolate melting in your mouth?

I got inspired by a recipe I found on a book called “Cuisinez en Souplesse“. I changed the proportions but I kept the concept of the chocolate crust and chocolate filling which is what we call a ganache. A ganache is a mixture of cream, milk, butter and chocolate that is used to fill pastries. If you had more chocolate than cream, then your ganache will be thicker. I like it a little unctuous and slightly creamy rather than harder.

Canned pears can be used for the filling but I prefer to use fresh ingredients. No matter what type of pear you are using, they need to be well drained. If you are using fresh pears, you need to cook them in water with honey and vanilla for about 3 minutes, then drain them and pat them dry carefully to remove excess liquid.

I had guests for dinner, and that was the dessert, I would not make this for just the pleasure of eating chocolate, it’s too dangerous, because no matter how big your slice is, you just cannot resist a second one. Will power is fighting with cocoa and the latter is definitely winning. So yes, chocolate rules!

Ingredients for 6-8 people

For the dough

4.58 oz (or 130 g) flour
1 oz (or 30 g) unsweetened cocoa
2.80 oz (or 80 g) soft butter
2.11 oz (or 60 g) sugar
1 egg

For the filling

7 pear halves
1.70 fl oz (or 5 cl) milk
7.4 oz (or 210 g) baking chocolate
6.76 fl oz (or 2o cl) crème fraîche or heavy cream
0.90 oz (or 25 g) butter, diced

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar and soft butter, mix until the dough has obtained a “sandy” texture. Add egg and mix all together. If the dough is too thick add a little water. Make a ball, with dough, wrap with plastic film and place in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Roll dough on a flat working surface, place it in a round tart mold, cover it with a parchment paper and add some beans on top to prevent it from inflating while baking. Place in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 360-370F.

Drain pears. Heat milk and cream in a pot at slow temperature. As soon as it boils, remove from heat. Add butter, chocolate and mix well until obtaining a smooth consistency. Beat the egg and add it to the chocolate mixture.

Remove parchment paper from mold, place pears inside mold and add chocolate mixture. Cook for 10 minutes. Let the tart rest for 20 minutes when removing from the oven. Let it cool before serving.

chocolate, Dessert, ganache, pear, tart

The little trendy appetizer – Pear crumble with roquefort cheese and hazelnuts

Aug 20th

Posted by silvia in Appetizers

8 comments

La petite entrée à la mode – Crumble de poires, roquefort et noisettes

Crumbles are quite trendy in France right now, I think anything with an anglo-saxon name is… Last time I was there, I noticed a few American items such as muffins, crumbles, brownies, cookies, (not to mention hamburgers au MacDo, that’s the way the French call McDonalds), but let’s just forget about McDo for now. Funny how McDonlads are all over France but never really made it to Italy that much and I’m really glad about that.

I was reading an article on Le Monde the other day and it seems like there is a new trend in France and real need for gourmet and organic fast food items that are going to compete with McDonalds and I am so glad that they want to change the traditional fast food concept into a better and more nutritious way of eating. Hopefully soon, you could eat sur le pouce (on the thumb) when you don’t have time to eat and still enjoy healthy and tasty food. Many chains are opening with famous chefs being involved in the food preparation. Let’s see what happens on that end…

We have seen the combination of pear and blue cheese before in many recipes….but I really like it and it’s been very popular anytime I served it, so even if this combo is not a top creation, it’s quick and delicious. I used to make tarts with gorgonzola and pear, salads, etc…so why not a crumble? If you don’t like the sweet twist of the pear, you can use spinach, greens, potatoes, etc… It’s a perfect little appetizer, that goes wonderfully with a simple frisée salad on the side.

I used individual ramequins, you can use a larger dish, individual ramequins make a nicer presentation but it’s not necessary. If you are using an indivdual ramequin, half pear would be enough, if not count one pear per person.

This is very easy but more so quick to prepare, so if you have unexpected guests, it would be perfect, you can put it together in less than 10 minutes and enjoy your evening. Now you might not have roquefort cheese waiting for you in the fridge, but any blue cheese would work. I used the British stilton before and it worked fine.

Ingredients for 4