Pear chocolate praline tartlets

I couldn't miss peak pear season without offering you a delicious little dessert. While looking for an idea, I came across pear caramel tartlets made several years ago now, it was in 2017. I thought I would offer you a similar version with slightly different flavors but which go just as well with pear: chocolate and praline.

These completely decadent tartlets consist of: hazelnut sweet pastry (I took the recipe for Quentin Lechat's sweet flan pastry), hazelnut cream and roasted hazelnut pieces, milk chocolate and praline namelaka cream and finally pear poached in a syrup of caramel.

For the realization, no particular difficulty. I chose to poach my pears in a caramel syrup to give them a beautiful golden color but you can opt for a spiced or vanilla syrup, it will go just as well with the other flavors. I advise you to use fairly firm pears like Conference pears or Rocha. They should be melt-in-the-mouth but still stand upright; be careful to monitor the cooking carefully.

For the cream, I opted for a namelaka, a particularly creamy cream, created by pastry chef and chocolatier Frédéric Bau; the recipe is also inspired by that of L'Ecole Valrhona.

One thing I thought of after finishing my tartlets was to add pure praline inside the pears. I think it could have brought even more deliciousness. So it's up to you to add more or not. In any case, we really enjoyed ourselves, in fact, to tell you, out of the 6 tartlets made, my darling had to eat 5 by himself xD, I now know that I can make them again without hesitation :D

Do not hesitate to give me your feedback, whether on the blog or social networks, I would be delighted to know your feedback and possibly see your achievements :)

Ingredients for 6 tartlets (circle 7cm in diameter):

The sweet dough (to make the day before):

125g semi-salted butter
90g of icing sugar
1 whole egg
30g roasted hazelnut powder
250g T55 flour

1- In an oven previously heated to 150°C, roast the hazelnut powder for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

2- In your bowl fitted with the sheet, sand the flour, the icing sugar, the hazelnut powder with the cold salted butter.

3- Add the egg and mix roughly (there should be plenty of pieces of butter remaining).

4- Remove the crumble of dough from your work surface and start by rolling it out with the palm of your hand in several steps. Then form a ball and mill again more roughly about 3 times. Gather the dough and divide it into two parts.

5- Spread each piece of dough between two sheets of baking paper 2mm thick (one part for the bottom and a wider part for the edges).

6- Reserve in the refrigerator for several hours.

7- Make several strips of dough 3cm wide and line the previously buttered circles. Then place a circle of dough at the bottom slightly smaller than the diameter of the circle (around 6cm in diameter) and make sure everything adheres well.

8- Reserve everything in the refrigerator overnight to allow the dough to crust.

Namelaka chocolate-milk praline cream (to make the day before):

1.6g gelatin
67g of milk chocolate (Alunga 41% milk chocolate from Barry)
50g almond and hazelnut praline
67g whole milk
3g of glucose
134g of whole liquid cream

1- Bring the milk to the boil with the glucose then add the rehydrated gelatin.

2- Melt the chocolate and add the praline. Mix.

3- Emulsify with a spatula by gradually pouring over the partially melted chocolate. Mix.

4- Add the cold cream and mix again. Film on contact and leave to crystallize in the refrigerator overnight.

Poached pears (to make the same day):

6 firm Rocha or Conference type pears
400g caster sugar
1L of water

1- Make a dry caramel. Pour a third of the sugar into a saucepan, when it has completely transformed into caramel, add the second third and do the same until the last third.

2- At the same time, boil the water.

3- Once the caramel is obtained, remove from the heat, gradually pour in the hot water without stirring.

4- Then place back on the heat to melt the pieces of caramel which have frozen. Stir well.

5- Wash, peel and core the pears.

6- Arrange the pears in the caramel syrup and cook over low heat for 30 to 40 minutes. The pears should be soft but still hold together. Then place them on a plate covered with absorbent paper and let them cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Hazelnut cream (to make the same day):

30g softened butter
30g caster sugar
30g egg
30g hazelnut powder
1 egg yolk
QS whole liquid cream
1 pinch of fleur de sel

1- Using a mixer, cream the softened butter with the caster sugar. Then add the egg, letting the mixture rise well. Then add the hazelnut powder. Whisk again.

2- Preheat the oven to 160°C. Bake the tart bases for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

3- Spread a thin layer of hazelnut cream on the base of the tart and bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 160°C until the hazelnut cream is lightly golden and cooked.

4- Take out the tartlets, brown the edges with an egg yolk mixed with a little liquid cream and a touch of fleur de sel and bake again for 8-10 minutes at 160°C until until the tartlets are golden brown. Let the tartlets cool. You can optionally lightly grate the edges of your tartlets to obtain smooth edges of the same height.