Sunday, 26th June – Visiting my lovely work colleagues in Geneva always means baking something nice for them. The two words they gave me: “chocolate and pear, I love this combination”. Chocolate, pear it is! While thinking about it, a nice memory came up – the banana chocolate tartelette that I used to eat almost every day at lunch time when doing my last internship. Crunchy pastry, smooth chocolate ganache and banana slices on the top. I was salivating already in the morning thinking about it. Challenge accepted: let’s try to replicate it, but with pears. Ideally, this desert will need to be prepared the day before.

INGREDIENTS

Pastry

• 150g butter at room temperature
• 2g salt
• 50g eggs (63+ g egg)
• 60g icing sugar
• 65g “tant pour tant” = 32.5g caster suger + 32.5g almond powder
• 250g flour

Ganache

• 200g dark chocolate
• 250g light cream
• 50g butter
• 1 pear

PREPARATION

Pastry

Material: salad bowl, small bowl, wooden spoon, cellophane tape, baking paper, pie baking form of 25cm, knife, dry beans or little stones

Time: 10 minutes / Resting time: 45 minutes / Baking time: 25 minutes

1. Soften the butter with a wooden spoon in the salad bowl.
2. Dissolve the salt in the egg. Beat slightly.
3. Add the icing sugar and the tant-pour-tant to the butter.
4. Add the beaten egg and a quarter of the flour.
5. Mix until you get a soft pastry.
6. Add the rest of the flour. Form a big ball. Pack it in cellophane tape and let rest in the fridge for 45minutes.
7. After 45 minutes, preheat your oven at 170°C. Put baking paper in the bottom of the baking form.
8. Take the pastry out of the fridge. Remove the cellophane tape and spread it in the baking form. The surface must be as even as possible. It should be 1/2 cm thick. Take away the excess cutting with a knife.
9. Add another baking paper on the pastry and cover with dry beans OR little stones.
10. Bake for 20 minutes. Then take away the beans and the baking paper at the surface and let bake another 5 minutes, until the pastry get coloured.

Ganache

Material: 1 small sauce pan + 1 big sauce pan, 1 middle size sauce pan, wooden spoon, whisk

Time: 10 minutes

1. Peel the pear. Cut it in halves. Get rid of the middle. Cut it in thin slices.
2. Prepare a water bath (half fill the big sauce pan with water, place the small sauce pan inside). Put the water bath on high heat. Melt the dark chocolate in the small sauce pan. Once the chocolate is half melt, start stirring gently.
3. At the same time, bring the cream to a boil in the middle size sauce pan.
4. Pour the warm cream on the melted chocolate, and whisk. Add the butter cut in little cubes.

Montage

Time: 5 minutes

1. Once the pastry is baked, take it out of the oven and let cool down for 5 minutes.
2. Put half of the ganache on the pastry.
3. Add the slices of pear.
4. Cover with the rest of the ganache.
5. Place in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

The Sweet Sunday Baker Tips & Tricks

1. You can also use bananas for this recipe.
2. You can either prepare a 25cm pie, or several smaller ones. The most important is the thickness of the pastry.
3. The pastry can either be spread on the bottom of the baking form, or on the bottom and sides. Take away the excess by cutting with a knife.
4. Watch the cream carefully, it boils quickly.