This pear and chocolate tart recipe is truly supersonic.
And by super I mean that if you choose it for a dinner or bring it as a gift they will ask for it for years to come.
The recipe comes from the “Brussels sprout” which unfortunately is no longer active, it is not technically “difficult”, but requires several steps and preparations. GUARANTEED result.
Ingredients for vanilla poached pears
- 4 Williams pears ripen
- half a vanilla pod
- 1 liter of water
- 500 g of sugar
Ingredients for the cocoa and hazelnut sablée shortcrust pastry
- 200 g of flour
- 125 g of butter
- 75 g of icing sugar
- 25 g of toasted and chopped hazelnuts
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon bitter cocoa powder
- 1 pinch of sale
Ingredients for chocolate filling
- 225g of 55% dark chocolate
- 150 g of melted butter
- 75 g of sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 egg yolks
First, toast the hazelnuts and chop them in the blender.
Open the pod with a small knife lengthwise, remove the black seeds with the knife and place them in the pan with the water. At this point, peel the pears, leaving them whole. Heat the water with the vanilla together with the sugar until boiling. Add the whole pears and cook for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the pears cool in their syrup. When assembling the tart, drain the pears, keeping the syrup aside (it could be useful for example for wetting a sponge cake type cake).
The pastry: Mix the soft butter with the sugar, salt, egg and ground hazelnuts. Then incorporate the sifted flour together with the cocoa, and mix until a smooth and soft mixture is obtained. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest for at least 2 hours in the fridge (or half an hour in the feeezer + 1 hour in the fridge) until the mixture takes on a good consistency. At this point, take the dough out and let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes before rolling it out (on lightly floured baking paper and also flouring the rolling pin). Roll out a sheet of dough 0.5 cm thick and line a tart mold, prick it with the tines of a fork and place in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.
Heat the mold to 180°C and cook the shortcrust pastry, covering it with baking paper and dried beans as weight, for 25-30 minutes until the edges begin to colour, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Chocolate cream: Chop the chocolate in the mixer and melt it in a bain-marie. Beat the egg and egg yolks together with the sugar with the whisk, add the melted chocolate then the melted butter and whip the mixture until it is smooth and homogeneous.
Assembly: Drain the pears and cut them into 4 segments, removing the core and seeds. Pour a layer of chocolate mixture onto the bottom of the tart and add the pear segments, with the rounded part facing upwards, arranging them in a radial pattern.
Complete with another chocolate filling, completely covering the pears or leaving a few pear segments visible to make a design, leveling well until the tart is filled. Bake at 180° for about twenty minutes (the inside must remain soft), leave to cool before serving and dust with bitter cocoa. Store in the refrigerator.
Trust me…it will be a success!
