Pear Dessert: Shortcrust Tartlets with Caramelized Pears

Name: Pear Dessert: Shortcrust Baskets with Caramelized Pears
Prep time: 1 h 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Wheat flour 2 cups (260 g); Sugar 4 tbsp (55 g); Butter 100 g; Egg 1; Salt a pinch; Firm ripe pears 6; Natural wine 1.5 cups (300 ml); Sugar 1.5 cups (270 g); Water enough for the pears to float; Star anise, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, whole nutmeg to taste; Mascarpone cheese 250 g; Powdered sugar 2-3 tbsp (18–27 g); Vanilla or liqueur optional

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1 h 30 mins

Once you have learned to make sweet, tasty caramelized pears, you can use them in all kinds of individual desserts to suit any taste. A pear dessert is quick and easy to make if you poach a few firm pears in advance in a mixture of water, wine and sugar with spices.

The dessert is served at the end of lunch or dinner. It is the finale of the meal and guarantees a good mood and a pleasant aftertaste. As a rule, desserts are made large and cut before serving. That is how cakes, jellies and many kinds of pastries are made. Individual desserts are always made one by one; they are complete in themselves and have their own character. Tiramisu, for example, is served this way in the chef’s own version.

I have always liked individual sweets that you can pick up, admire and eat. Many pastries, though, are better eaten with a small fork and knife; these are called dessert pastries. Besides, individual portions are where the pastry chef’s imagination shows, most often in very rich decoration.

Since childhood I have loved pastries in the form of shortcrust baskets with cream and fruit. What I remember most are large, flat, scalloped baskets of sweet, crumbly dough with buttercream and candied fruit: raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. All of it was glazed with clear, set jelly. At home we more often made them with sweet canned pears, a wonderful dish.

The recipe is simple, and I have already described it: pears poached in wine and water with sugar, caramelized pears. They are fragrant and sweet, covered with hardening caramel. You need one pear per serving of dessert.

For individual portions you need to make shortcrust baskets. This is not difficult. The best choice is the simple dough used for sweet tartlets. It is a simple mixture of wheat flour and butter, made without water. The dough is easy to prepare and bakes perfectly. But, and this is important, it is very fragile and needs care. For the cream we make a sweet mixture of mascarpone and powdered sugar.

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Ingredients

6 servings

For the shortcrust baskets
Wheat flour 2 cups (260 g)
Sugar 4 tbsp (55 g)
Butter 100 g
Egg 1
Salt a pinch
For the caramelized pears
Firm ripe pears 6
Natural wine 1.5 cups (300 ml)
Sugar 1.5 cups (270 g)
Water enough for the pears to float
Star anise, cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, whole nutmeg to taste
For the cream
Mascarpone cheese 250 g
Powdered sugar 2-3 tbsp (18–27 g)
Vanilla or liqueur optional

Step-by-step recipe

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Pears in syrup

At first glance, a pear dessert seems complicated. In fact, the pears are simply poached in sweet syrup, the shortcrust baskets are baked from an extremely simple dough, and the mascarpone cream is whipped with sugar in an ordinary mixer. That is really where all the difficulty ends. All of these steps can be done at the same time. My daughter and I did everything in parallel when we made this little marvel.
Start with the pears. By the way, do not forget that they must cool before you assemble the dessert.
Peel the firm, ripe pears, keeping the stems, and cover them with a mixture of wine and water with sugar added. The liquid should be deep enough for the pears to float. Add whole spices to the syrup.
Poach the pears: bring to a boil so the sugar dissolves, cover the pot with a lid, reduce the heat to a gentle boil and cook for about 1 hour, until the pears are soft inside; this is easy to check by piercing a pear with a thin knife blade. Lift the poached pears out of the syrup and set them on a plate to cool.
While the pears cool, boil the remaining syrup down until very thick: stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until it is as thick as very thick honey. When cooled, this syrup sets and looks like caramel.

Shortcrust baskets

Make the dough. While the pears are cooking, sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar and a pinch of fine salt. Stir so the ingredients combine. Chop the butter, softened at room temperature, with a knife. Add the butter and the contents of the egg to the flour; the sugar will dissolve in it. If you add only the yolk, the finished baskets will be more fragile, and the pear dessert may break when pressed. Knead the dough thoroughly and refrigerate it for 15-20 minutes.
Press the dough into the molds. You can bake the baskets in silicone or metal molds 8-10 cm in diameter; this amount of ingredients makes 6. Divide the dough into 6 pieces and press it with your fingers over the bottom and sides. The sides of the baskets should be about 3-4 cm high. Prick the bottoms of the baskets with a fork so they do not rise during baking.
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 15-20 minutes. The finished dough starts to darken slightly, and that is the sign to watch for. The baskets must cool to room temperature.

Sweet cream

You can also make the sweet cream at the same time. If you like, make a buttercream with raw or boiled condensed milk, a custard cream or any other. We decided on an extremely simple and tasty cream.
Mix a small pack (250 g) of Italian mascarpone cream cheese with 2-3 tbsp of powdered sugar (18–27 g) and whip with a mixer until smooth. If you like, add vanilla or your favorite aromatic liqueur; we prefer Cointreau.

Assembling the dessert

So the pears are poached and cooled, the caramel is ready. The shortcrust baskets have cooled, and the cream beckons with its tenderness.
Fill the baskets with cream. For convenience, I suggest arranging the finished baskets on a large platter or board. Spoon the sweet cream into each basket. Do not skimp; there should be plenty of cream, almost to the rim. Smooth the cream to make a nearly flat surface.
Cut the pears and set them on the cream. From the bottom of each pear, carefully cut out the core with the seeds, then cut the pear from the bottom into 6-8 wedges that stay joined at the narrow end where the stem is. Carefully set the cut pear on the cream, stem up, and twist it slightly so the wedges shift in a circle and form a beautiful, symmetrical shape. You can also simply arrange the wedges nicely on top of the cream.
Drizzle the pears with the caramelized syrup they were poached in. Put the baskets with the pear dessert in the refrigerator so the caramel sets firmly.

Serving

After that, the individual sweet caramel pears with sweet cream are ready to serve.

Calories and macros

780 kcal

Serving ≈ 380 g

Protein8 g4% of kcal
Fat32 g38% of kcal
Carbs112 g58% of kcal

100 g207 kcalProtein 2.2 gFat 8.6 gCarbs 29.6 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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