Pear halves covered with snow

Version française disponible ici !

When I checked out foodreporter (this great application that changed my life ^^), I stumbled upon the “Pear halves covered with snow” from Julia. And as each time Julia posts a photo of her dishes I want to try it, here it is now! Last time, it has already been 4 months, I tried her magical cake, a really good dessert, melting and crunchy at the same time :) And today it’s the pear + chocolate association that convinced me to adventure myself. Moreover I was sure that my mister would appreciate it :)

Well my version is unfortunately not as pretty as Julia’s one (and I noticed afterwards that I didn’t cover it enough with snow ^^). But the taste was there, mister enjoyed it! Mission accomplished ;)

For the ingredients and the way to proceed, follow me!

• 3 firm pears
• 150g flour
• 1 tbs cacao
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g sugar
• 150g melted butter (ouch)
• 2 eggs

For the syrup

• 750 ml water
• 210g sugar
• 10g vanilla sugar (or a vanilla pod to stick to Julia’s recipe)

Let’s start by preparing the syrup to poach the pears:

Heat over a low heat the water and sugars until everything has been dissolved.

Peel the pears and dive them into the syrup. Don’t hesitate to add some water to entirely cover the pears. Bring to boil and then turn down the heat and let it stew for 25 minutes.

Remove the pears and let them cool down on paper towels. Cut them in half and keep their stem tied and then remove the middle containing seeds.

Then we prepare the chocolate dough:

Into a salad bowl, sieve flour, cacao and baking powder.

Add the sugar and mix. Make a whole in the center and add the eggs one by one and then the melted butter. Mix until you get a homogenous mixture.

Grease a big dish with butter (mine is 24 cm diameter) and flour it. Pour the mixture in it. Put the pears by slightly pressing them.

COOKING

Bake 30 minutes at 200°C.

 

TIPS AND TRICKS

The pears I had started to ripen a bit so I let them stew for only 15 minutes instead of the 25 indicated. So if yours aren’t completely firm, you can also reduce the poaching time. Nevertheless it’s best not to use ripe pears, they would get mushy!

You obviously noticed it, there is a lot of butter in this recipe! When I tasted it, I felt it was a bit too much (well, it may be because I prepared it also ^^), so I think that next time I will try to decrease the quantity of butter (to 100g for example) to see how it is. But it didn’t bother mister at all, he really liked it and asked for more! ;)

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

You can serve it slightly warm after having sprinkled it with some icing sugar :)

I didn’t dare to accompany it with some vanilla ice cream but I suggest you try if you’re feeling adventurous :D

Rose.