Call me strange, but I really don’t care for the flavor of apples as much as I like the flavor of pears. And thankfully, even in my neck of the woods, there are numerous varieties of them to choose from nowadays. Thinking back to my days making classic restaurant apple tarts and tart tatin, I wanted to do something for thanksgiving that likened to those, but were centered around the pear.

I decided on a roasted pear tart. Wanting to capture the flavor of a tart tatin, it’s got a caramelized crust on top… much like a crème brûlée. It sits on a pâte sablée crust, which is one of my favorite doughs of all time practically. The pears themselves were cooked much in the fashion of an old family apple tart, just out of the crust.

For the pâte sablée:
135g unsalted butter
120g sugar
55g egg yolks
4g vanilla extract
3g salt
9g baking powder
180g AP flour
1 egg for egg wash

Sift the flour and baking powder together. Cream the butter and sugar until very light. Add the salt, vanilla, egg yolks scraping down the bowl. Then add the flour mix until just combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Chill in the refrigerator.
Roll dough to a thickness of about 1/3 inch. Cut into the shape you like to fit the mold you are using. Brush with egg wash and bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

For the pears:
This tart is held together loosely by gelatin. For 10 pears, two sheets will work well. Bloom in cold water. Select any variety that you’d like. I like to mix it up with several kinds. Peel and core them. Chop into a large dice. Saute in butter, sugar and vanilla beans until nicely caramelized. Place in a 325 degree oven and continue cooking until just softened. Melt the gelatin n a microwave until just liquefied. Add to the warm pears.
Place sablée into bottom of mold. Add pears to fill on top, pressing down to ensure that there aren’t any spaces. Try for a nice level top. Place in refrigerator to set.
When ready to serve, remove from mold and sprinkle with demerrara sugar. Caramelize with a torch.

There are flavors that classically are intertwined. Those include things like: chocolate and raspberries, balsamic vinegar and strawberries and blueberries with lemon. One of my personal favorites is coffee and bananas.For this dessert I’ve also added two other primary flavors which blend with the others very well. Those are chocolate and Sambuca.

My ideal makeup for a dessert incorporates several different textures, flavors and temperatures. I like to limit it to 3, maybe 4 key flavor elements. The approach with this dessert is a coffee panna cotta with a circle of caramelized bananas on top. These are ringed by a sambuca foam and topped with a chocolate caviar.

For the Panna Cotta:
340g. heavy cream
80g whole coffee beans
1 vanilla bean
6g leaf gelatin
115g sugar
200g mascarpone
100g half and half

Bloom the gelatin leaves in water. Place the heavy cream and coffee beans into a heavy saucepan. Split and scrape the vanilla bean and add to the cream. Heat gently until scalded. Cover and let steep for at least an hour. Blend the mascarpone and half and half together with a rubber spatula. Be careful not to break the cheese by beating it too hard.After the steeping period is over, gently re-warm the cream with the sugar added. Add the gelatin and the mascarpone. Strain and portion.

For the cocoa caviar:
(I’ve made some of this recipe in volume because the size of some of the ingredients is too small for most scales to measure)
118g sugar
55g glucose
2 T cocoa powder
100g water
1/8t locust bean gum
1g agar agar

2 cups very cold vegetable oil (around 32 degrees F.)

Cook sugar and glucose together to a rich caramel. Make sure you wash down the sides with a brush to prevent crystallization. Deglaze with the water then mix in cocoa. Whisk in Agar and the Locust Bean Gum, bring to a simmer. Strain and cool slightly, but retain a little warmth to prevent solidifying. Fill a squirt bottle with a very small tip. Drop into cold oil. You can vary the size of drops with hand pressure.

For the Sambuca foam:
250g whole milk
55g Sambuca
50g sugar
1g powdered lecithin

Heat milk with sugar to a scald. Whisk in lecithin. Pull off heat and add Sambuca. Reserve.

To make the Banana circles and finish:
Sliced bananas (try to not make a bias cut)
melted butter
Demerrara sugar

Arrange banana slices on parchment paper squares. Form them into a circle around a half inch smaller than the container your panna cotta is in. Overlap each slice so it forms a tight ring. Coat with melted butter and store in the refrigerator. Coating them will make them easier to handle and will also delay oxydization. When ready, remove from the refigerator and sprinkle with demerrara sugar. Caramelize with torch until evenly brown. Try to move quickly, if heated too long the bananas will start sliding apart. Let cool and place on top of the panna cottas. Place Sambuca milk in a container that will leave you with at least 3 inches of side above the milk. Take a hand immersion blender and froth the milk. Spoon the bubbles around the edge of the bananas. Top with a spoon full of cocoa caviar.

recipe courtesy Timothy Horst, pastrypros.com

Ingredients:

Lime risotto:
113g Arborio rice
710ml milk
232g cream
75g sugar
1 van bean, scraped
Zest 2 limes
Juice 1 lime
10ml rum

Coconut sorbet:
500g coconut puree
160g water
600g sorbet syrup
Juice 1 lime

Tropical fruit:
Small dice of ripe tropical fruit

Thai basil caramel:
2oz water
8oz sugar
2oz water
150g thai basil puree

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Method:
For the risotto-
Combine rice, milk, cream, sugar and vanilla seeds in pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, stirring constantly, until rice is cooked. Cool and add rum, lime zest and lime juice. Cover and refrigerate.

For the sorbet syrup-
Heat water, glucose and 2/3 of sugar. Mix remaining sugar with stabilizer and whisk into water/sugar mix. Bring to a boil and strain. Chill and let mature 24 hours.

For the coconut sorbet-
Blend puree, water, sorbet syrup and lime juice together. Process in batch freezer.

For thai basil caramel-
Combine first water and sugar and cook to a very light caramel. Deglaze with remaining water, cool and add thai basil puree. Refrigerate.

recipe courtesy Timothy Horst, pastrypros.com

Ingredients:

Pate sucree:
500g AP flour, sifted
375g unsalted butter
175g sugar
75g blanched almond flour
75g 10x sugar
6g salt
100g whole eggs
1 van. Bean, scraped

Chocolate ganache:
225g 61% chocolate
225g cream
25g trimoline
10g liquid glucose
60g butter, soft
26g lemon juice

Salted caramel sauce:
50g sugar
200g cream
125g white chocolate
15g butter, soft
2g salt

Chocolate sauce:
300g sugar
300ml water
200g cream
125g cocoa pwdr

Candied pistachio powder:
Pistachios
Salt
sugar

Whipped crème fraiche:
Crème fraiche
10x sugar
1 van. bean

Method:
For pate sucree-
Butter, salt, van. seed and sugar together in the kitchen aid until just malleable. Add almond flour and 10x sugar and combine. Add eggs and flour, alternating ending on flour. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Wrap and refrigerate. Roll, portion and bake, blind, in a 350 degree oven until golden brown.

For ganache filling –
Heat cream, trimoline and glucose until it just reaches a boil. Pour over chocolate and stir to emulsify. Add softened butter and stir to melt and incorporate. Add lemon juice. Pour into shells and refrigerate to set.

For salted caramel sauce –
Mix sugar with a little water and cook in saucepan until it reaches a light caramel. Heat cream, and whisk into caramel. Pour over white chocolate and stir. Add softened butter and salt. Refrigerate.

For chocolate sauce –
Heat water and sugar to a boil. Pour over cocoa powder and whisk smooth. Place back on the heat and bring to a boil. Strain into ice bath and add cream. Refrigerate.

For candied pistachios-
Place pistachios, sugar, salt and a little water in a bowl. Stir and place over heat. Constantly stir with a wooden spoon. Be careful not to burn nuts. As the sugar melts, scrape onto sides to allow crystallization. When the sound of sand appears, remove from heat and continue stirring until it crystallizes fully. Cool and pulverize in a coffee grinder.

For whipped crème fraiche-
Whip crème fraiche, enough 10x to sweeten and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean until stiff. Refrigerate.

recipe courtesy Timothy Horst, pastrypros.com

Well, seeing as the fall is creeping up on us at an alarming rate, I thought we’d feature a nice home-y tasting, but well presented dessert in a glass.

Fall spice risotto with carrot caramel, pumpkin sorbet and candied popcorn

ingredient lists:

fall spice risotto:
2L milk
.5L risotto
350g granulated sugar
2 van. beans, scraped
3g spice mix (eq.parts:cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, grd. ginger)

Bring milk, vanilla beans, spice mix and sugar to a scald. In a seperate pot, sautee risotto in a small amount of unsalted butter. Add 1/2L of scalded milk and cook until milk is absorbed, stirring constantly. Add 1/2L more milk and cook until absorbed stirring constantly. Keep adding remaining milk until rice is cooked. Cool.

carrot caramel:
60ml water
225g granulated sugar
90ml water
150g cooked, pureed , seived carrots

Cook sugar and first water to a light caramel, with barely any color. Add the second water to the warm caramel, followed by the carrot puree. Strain. Cool.

pumpkin sorbet:
400g pumpkin puree
805g sorbet syrup

Add pumkin puree to sorbet syrup, whisk. process in batch/ice cream freezer according to manufacturers directions.

to assemble:

Warm approx 8oz/240ml of risotto. If necessary, add a small amount of milk to loosen. Place in glass. Top with a layer of carrot caramel, then a quenelle of pumpkin sorbet. Garnish with caramel popcorn.

recipe courtesy Timothy Horst, pastrypros.com