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Monday 30 June 2014

Chocolate Frangipane Tart With Poached Pear

I am a big fan of Masterchef Australia and MKR (My Kitchen Rules).  Our local TV does not aired both these cooking competition series but only at the cable TV.  As it only aired one episode everyday or once a week, I just couldn't wait for that long to watch the next episode.  Hence I searched all the episodes in Youtube and Dailymotion.  From there on, I been glued myself watching those amateurs cooking up and presenting those dishes professionally.

Here, today, a post recipe from Masterchef Series 4.



Chocolate Frangipane Tart With Poached Pear

Pastry
250g plain flour
pinch salt
60g cocoa powder
100g icing sugar
200g unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
iced water

Poached pears
500ml water
250g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways, seeds scraped
Juice and strips of rind of one lemon
1/3 cup vincotto *
4 medium corella pears, peeled

Chocolate frangipane
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
2 eggs
100g almond meal
1 tablespoon flour
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways, seeds scraped
100g dark chocolate, melted


1 Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced.

2 For pastry, place flour, salt, cocoa, and sugar in a food processor and process for 30 seconds until mixed. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles crumbs. With the motor running add egg yolk and about 40ml iced water, or just enough for dough to come together.

3 Tip onto a lightly floured surface, bring together to form a flat disc, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate until just firm.

4 For poached pears, place water, sugar, vanilla, lemon peel and vincotto in a deep, small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Peel pears and remove core from base. Place pears, stem-side up in the saucepan and reduce to a simmer, cover and simmer until pears are tender. Add lemon juice to syrup. Remove pears, allow to cool slightly, reserve poaching syrup.  Slice sides of pears in curved lines, starting 2cm from the stem in a curved line down to the base, repeat at 1cm intervals. The pear should be joined at the top and separate at the base, so when you twist the pear the slices will fan out.

5 Roll pastry between two sheets of baking paper to 2mm thick. Butter and flour 4 x 10cm fluted tart  tins with removable bases. Line each tart tin with pastry, trimming the edge to fit the tin. Refrigerate until pastry is firm. Line tarts with baking paper and pastry weights and bake for 15 minutes until firm around the edge, remove pastry weights and paper and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until pastry is set. Remove from oven and set aside.

6 For the chocolate frangipane, cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well between additions. Fold in almond meal and flour and then melted chocolate.

7 Fill the tart shells with the frangipane, smooth the surface and bake for 20 minutes or until frangipane is cooked. Set aside until firm. Carefully remove the tarts from the tins and place onto serving plates.  Place a poached pear in the centre of each tart, slightly fanned by twisting the pear. Drizzle the tart and plate with a little poaching liquid.

* Vincotto is a cooked wine.  I have used balsamic vinegar as a substitute.  Almost the same.


My mum used to make poached pears for us to indulge way back in my younger years and now she still do it for us.    This is why whenever I see recipe with poached pears, it just remind me of my mum.

Wish I could share this delicious tart with my mum.


                                     Ooops....forgotten to take the innards of the tart.  









18 comments:

  1. Hi Mel,
    You baked your frangipane tart so beautifully! Love the poached pear topping, it must be soft and moist and yum!! :D
    mui

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  2. aromatic tart! i love chocolate tarts!!!! in fact have been thinking about it for a long time.. now this is timely

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  3. Mmmm.... I can already smell the sweetness of this lovely frangipane tart. Beautiful presentation :)

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  4. Hi Mel, I must say your tart looks gorgeous, especially how you fanned the pear. Well done!

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  5. Woww!!! looks fantastic yummmii!!!!!

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  6. Mmmmm.. a masterchef bake with a touch of glam from mel ~ I can only imagine how delish it must be! ^^

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  7. I love tarts but they are too sinful to be made too often…the pear looks wonderful sitting on top of it! Really beautiful!

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  8. Mel, your tarts look so beautiful!!!!!! One for me please :)

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  9. Hi Mel,
    Your tart is simply beautiful! And it looks divine! Yummy!

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  10. Hi Mel, yummy ... the poached pear wearing a nice skirt & sitting beautifully on the 'cushion' ... beautiful tart you've baked :)

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  11. what a beautiful dessert!

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  12. Hi, Mel...your tart looks so "high class" and pretty! I would like to have a bite...
    Thanks for linking up with LTU!

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  13. Wow, this looks really pretty! I have never made something so intricate :) I don't really follow Masterchef but i happened to catch Masterchef Junior US finals the other day and even that i was blown away, the kids were just amazing!

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  14. Hi Mel,

    I used to watch Masterchef and MKR very religiously but tends to give up watching any TV these days... Ironically, these programs are free to air in Australia :p

    You have bake your chocolate frangipane tart with poached pear so beautifully. Is there any Masterchef in NZ? Will you join?

    Zoe

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  15. Mel, this tart looks very pretty. And sure very yummy too!

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  16. Mel, this tart looks so good and delicious...well done!

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  17. nice! also i think you have sliced the pears so well that it looks very attractive on the tart!

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