Poached Pear Praline Mousse Tarts

Hey there! So this recipe is a goodie. I actually got approached by my high school once I had dropped out if I could please provide them with some recipes for their newsletter booklet. I was very happy to do this because it was sharing something I was very passionate about.

This is one of the recipes I tailored to the newsletter because they asked for something seasonal. Pears were in season so I had seen a similar tart on Pinterest which I had been wanting to try. SO this was the perfect time.

Today I have for you some chocolate mousse tablets with hazelnut vanilla bean praline, toasted hazelnuts, orange and cardamon poached pears, garnished with gold leaf and chocolate ganache piped stars. Yum they sound as tasty as they look.

I actually love this styled shoot I did. I love the rustic theme you get when you look at these photos. The wooden board, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks, dollies and scattered dried leaves.

I love this next photo with all the tart lined up I find that the lighting is really good in this photo. The light catches all different angles and sides of the praline, gold leaf and pear.

I love pears, such a good piece of fruit. Such a staple much like the apple. We used to have a huge pear tree in our orchard and it would just produce and produce during its season that we could never keep up eating them all. We found this with a lot of our fruit because we had a big orchard, most of the time I would use the fruit in my baking, or mum would bottle the pears or we would give bags of pears away to friend or family who came and visited us on the farm.

I honestly think why baking was so special to me was because we were on a self sufficient farm so every ingredient I was using was the best of the best. I loved waking up early in the morning and having the sun stream through my windows. I would hear the faint sounds of cows mooing, motorbike and tractors working and birds chirping. I would go into the kitchen and make a huge breakfast. Waffles, muesli, pancakes, pan au chocolate or smoothies. Whatever I fancied.

I would then sit at the dinning room table eating my breakfast for a good hour while I flipped through recipe book, through recipe book combining different recipes and coming up with my own recipe for todays baking.

Then I would go out of the farm and source my ingredients. It honestly was so therapeutic to me. And very wholesome. These pears are poached in mulled wine. Which is regular wine that has been heated over the stovetop with spices and herbs.

For my pears I flavoured them orange and cardamon because I wanted something to be slightly bitter and not to sweet so it would cut out the sweetness you would get from the praline and chocolate mousse.

I would always take photos with my creations because I would always be so proud of my creations. I think its important once you see a really cool cake and then you see a photo with someone holding it. It adds more personality and story to the blog and that is what I want people to feel when they are looking through my blog.

Today I have a few recipes for you, chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline, poaching liquid for the pears and the sweet shortcrust pastry for the tart shells.

Killer tarts and killer recipes, keep scrolling down to find the recipes! Have a fabulous day everyone, I think I am gonna go to yoga at 1pm. I have recently being using the sauna at the gym, and oh my god that is very hard to do. I can do about 15 minutes, but I get really scared if fainting when there is no one around.

For wine, I actually just choose the cheaper I could find because you are going to be altering and changing the taste anyway to your preference so save some money and you can buy cheap ingredients for once!

Oh very important! When peeling the pears, peal the skins off the pear but leave the stalk, this is essential because it is what helps you help achieve the look you want.

Once the pears are tender, remove them from the poaching liquid and allow to cool. Cut the pears vertically in half one side with the stalk. The half with the stalk lay flat on the chopping board and begin cutting up towards the stalk with 1cm strips. Like you would with an avocado to present it nicely.

Here is the recipe...

Recipe:

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry:

linzxvi.wixsite.com/linz/single-post/2018/05/03/Shortcrust-Pastry

Poached Pears Liquid (orange and cardamon)

1 x 750ml dry red wine

2 1/4 cups sugar

2 cups water

1/2 cup orange juice

2 Tablespoons Orange Zest

1 teaspoons ground cardamon

1 cinnamon stick (snapped to release flavours)

8 pears, not too ripe, peeled and stalk still attached.

Method:

Combine everything in a saucepan apart from the pears. Stir over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring the mixture down to a simmer. Slowly add the pears, 4 at a time so they get an even colour and poaching.

Let them poach slowly for 20-30minutes. You know when they are ready when a knife pierced into the pear and it is tender.

Pull the pears out of the poaching liquid and cook the remaining 4 pears.

Leave the pears to rest and cool down.

Hazelnut Praline:

100g hazelnuts, roasted and chopped

200g caster sugar

2 Tablespoon water

1 teaspoon lemon juice (will help crystals from not forming)

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Roast your hazelnuts for 6-8 minutes or until the skins start to flake off. Remove from oven and allow them to cool.

With a tea towel, place the hazelnuts on one side and fold the tea towel over top. Rub the skins off the hazelnuts. Discard the skins.

Chop up the blanched hazelnuts.

Place sugar, water, lemon in the bottom of a saucepan on medium heat.

Swirl the pot carefully, getting the liquid to moisten all the sugar crystals.

Cook until it starts to colour around the edges, swirl the pot so the colour gets evenly distributed. Do not stir! You might introduce crystals.

Once it turns nice and golden add your roasted and chopped nuts.

Pour the praline out onto a lined baking tray with baking paper.

Allow to set at room temperature. Break into pieces when ready to garnish.

Chocolate Mousse:

4 large egg yolks

4 Tablespoons Sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vailla paste

1 orange, zested

225g dark chocolate, melted (60%)

pinch of salt

Method:

In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cream. Cook over medium low heat, stirring until the mixture coats the back of the wooden spoon. About 3-4 minutes, do not boil the mixture!

Remove from heat , whisk in melted chocolate, vanilla, orange zest and salt.

Strain the mixture through a sieve and place in a new bowl. Place a layer of glad wrap on top of the mousse to stop a skin from forming.

Allow it to set at room temperature.

Assembly:

Grab your cooled tart shells, and pipe your set mousse into the tart shells.

Slice the pears directly in half with the steam attached to one side. You will be using the half with the steam still attached.

Slice the pear like a fan, like you would with your avocado. Fan the pear on top of the mousse.

Add your crushed praline, and stick some pieces upright in the sides.

Pipe some mousse stars onto the pear, garnish with chopped hazelnuts and gold leaf.

Ohhhh wooh la!