Pear and chocolate tart with a hint of mint

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 1 tart, you will need:

• 1 100 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
• 2 1 litre Poaching syrup
• 3 5 Pears
• 4 250 g Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée)
• 5 2 Eggs
• 6 10 g Vanilla sugar
• 7 100 ml whole milk
• 8 250 ml liquid cream
• 9 200 g dark chocolate
• 10 1 tablespoon Toasted flaked almonds (optional)
• Total weight: 2,560 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
55 min.	1 hour 7 min.	2 hours

Step by step recipe

1	Prepare 100 g Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream), but instead of vanilla, add a handful of mint leaves to the milk. This will give you a mint-flavoured custard, which you can colour green for added eye-appeal. Set aside.
2	The pears Peel 5 Pears and poach in the syrup. They should be soft when done: a knife blade should go through very easily. Cover and leave to cool in the syrup.
3	Slice the pears crosswise into rounds about the same thickness as the depth of your tart (for mine, this was about half an inch (1.5 cm). You will have offcuts that you can use in another recipe, such as poire belle hélène.
4	Cut out and discard the pear cores. An apple corer is idel for this, or use a small pointed knife. Set aside.
5	The sweetcrust pastry case Use 250 g Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée) to line a 9-inch (22 cm) tart tin or ring, then bake blind. Leave the cooked pastry case in its tin, as it will be going back in the oven later.
6	The chocolate cream filling Whisk together 2 Eggs and 10 g Vanilla sugar until well mixed.
7	Bring 100 ml whole milk and 250 ml liquid cream to the boil.
8	As soon as it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat and add 200 g dark chocolate in small pieces. Whisk in gently until the mixture is smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature.
9	Add the egg and vanilla sugar mixture.
10	Mix again thoroughly. Your choclate cream is ready.
11	Assembling the tart Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Arrange the pear slices in the tart case.
12	Pour the chocolate cream around the pears, but do not fill the centres.
13	Bake for 15 minutes, just until the chocolate filling is barely set. It should still be slightly wobbly. Leave to cool.
14	Fill the centres of the pears with mint confectioner's custard.
15	Finish with a few toasted flaked almonds scattered over the chocolate filling. Your tart is ready.

Remarks

When you pour in the chocolate cream in Step 12, I advise you to do this through a very fine strainer, to make sure the cream has a smooth surface after its brief baking.
To help the pastry case stay crisp longer, you can use a chablonnage at the end of Step 5, coating the bottom with dark or white chocolate.

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