Pear-pecan tartlets

Hello food lovers,

I had been wanting to try the tarte ring kit "Palet" from Silikomart for a while. It is beautiful! This kit allows you to create stunning desserts, I really recommend it! :-)

For this new recipe, I went for pear and pecan tartlets with a touch of caramel for even more indulgence! ;-)

The combination of pear and pecan works wonderfully!

Let's get started with the recipe!

To make 8 tartlets, you will need:

Caramel pears

- 2 Williams pears

- 8gr of butter

- 13gr of invert sugar

- 0,5gr of powdered gelatin

- 2,5gr of water

- 25gr of sugar

- 10gr of heavy cream

Pear mousse

- 170gr of pear purée

- 13gr of sugar

- 115gr of heavy cream

- 2 gelatin sheets

Pecan shortcrust pastry

- 250gr of flour

- 150gr of butter

- 95gr of icing sugar

- 35gr of pecans

- 1 egg

- 1 pinch of salt

Pecan cream

- 35gr of butter

- 35gr of icing sugar

- 35gr of pecans

- 35gr of egg

- A few pecans

Decoration

- 1 jar of white mirror glaze: unfortunately, this item is currently no longer available in our range. You will find a homemade glaze recipe on our blog.

- 10gr of water

- 30gr of pecans

- 1 pear

We will start by making the caramel pears as they will need to cool in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Caramel pears

In 2,5gr of very cold water, weigh out 0,5gr of powdered gelatin.

To be precise, use the precision spoon scale. It's great, it's the tool to have in your drawers. ;-)

With a spoon, mix the water and gelatin well and let it bloom while we prepare the rest.

Let's move on to preparing the pears.

I used Williams pears as I love this variety. You can of course choose other pears according to your taste.

Peel 2 pears (don't rely on the photos, I had pears left over at the end, so I adjusted my recipe) and cut them into small cubes.

In a pan, pour the pears and add 8gr of butter and 13gr of invert sugar. The invert sugar will give the pears a lovely texture.

Cook them over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the pears from sticking.

I preferred to keep the pears slightly crunchy, if you prefer them soft, cook them for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Pour the pears into a bowl and set them aside for a moment.

We will now make the caramel.

Start by heating 10gr of heavy cream for 15 seconds in the microwave at 600Watt. This step is very important, don't skip it! ;-)

Once the cream is heated, we will make a dry caramel.

Take your 25gr of sugar, pour a portion of the sugar into your saucepan, wait until it has completely melted and add a little more sugar.

Continue until all the sugar has melted.

Don't hesitate to remove the saucepan from the heat from time to time if your caramel is browning too quickly.

Caution! Never stir with a spatula or any other utensil! The caramel would crystallise immediately! Let it melt quietly. :-)

Once the caramel is nicely golden, add the cream you heated earlier. This is why it is important to heat the cream in advance, because if you add cold cream to the caramel, it will splatter and/or seize up in your saucepan.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and using a whisk, mix the cream into the caramel well.

Add the gelatin and mix well so that it melts.

Pour the pears set aside into the caramel and mix well.

Place the saucepan over low heat for about 5 minutes so that the pears are well infused with the caramel.

Transfer the caramel pears into a bowl and place them in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Once the caramel pears are completely cooled, we can make the pear mousse.

Pear mousse

In a jug of very cold water, submerge 2 gelatin sheets.

Pour 115gr of heavy cream into a jug and whip it into a firm whipped cream.

In a saucepan, pour 30gr of pear purée and 13gr of sugar.

Bring everything to a boil.

Off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatin to the purée/sugar mixture. Mix well so that the gelatin melts completely.

Pour the pear purée/sugar/gelatin mixture into the remaining purée (140gr), mix well.

Gently fold in the whipped cream into the purée with a whisk to obtain a smooth, homogeneous mousse.

Prepare a large jug and place a piping bag in it, this will help you fill the piping bag without making a mess. ;-P

Pour the mousse into the piping bag.

On a perforated tray, prepare the silicone mould that is included in the Silikomart tarte ring kit "Palet".

Cut the tip of the piping bag and pipe a little mousse into the bottom of the mould.

Using a small angled spatula, spread the mousse all over the mould.

It is important that there is mousse everywhere so that the pears don't sink afterwards.

Distribute the caramel pears over the mousse, adding about 1.5 tsp per mould.

Pipe a little mousse over the pears.

Smooth the mousse with the small angled spatula to cover the pears.

Place the mousses in the freezer for about 6 hours.

While our mousses set in the freezer, we will make the tartlet bases.

Pecan shortcrust pastry

Start by grinding 35gr of pecans into a powder using a food processor.

In a large bowl, place 150gr of butter, 95gr of icing sugar and the 35gr of pecan powder.

Attach the flat beater "K" to your mixer and mix at medium speed until you obtain a fluffy mixture.

Then crack 1 egg into the mixture.

Add a pinch of salt and mix again with the "K" beater until you obtain a well-homogeneous mixture.

Add 250gr of flour and mix lightly at low speed.

Be careful not to over-mix, otherwise the pastry will puff up during baking. This is also why the flour is added last (so that the gluten doesn't develop too much).

Finish mixing with a scraper then form a ball.

Place the dough between two sheets of baking paper, so the dough won't stick to the rolling pin when rolling it out.

Roll out the dough using a large rolling pin. Use the 3 mm guide sticks to get an even dough.

Once rolled out, place the dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

I recommend dividing your dough in two to make lining easier afterwards. That way one part of the dough will stay in the freezer while you use the other part.

On a perforated tray, place a perforated mat and the 8 perforated rings included in the kit.

Take out one half of your dough from the freezer.

Cut out your dough using your rings.

Take the second half of the dough out of the freezer, and cut 2 cm strips from it.

Use the strip cutter to get even strips.

Place the strips against the edges of the rings.

Be as neat as possible, press the strips firmly against the rings and against the base. There should be no gaps between them.

Trim the excess that overhangs using a knife. Use the edge of the ring as a guide to cut straight.

Place your tray in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 160°C, fan-assisted.

We will blind-bake the tartlet bases. This means we will not bake them completely, we will finish baking after adding the pecan cream.

Bake the tartlet bases for 15 minutes.

While our tartlet bases are baking, we will prepare the pecan cream.

Pecan cream

Start by blending 35gr of pecans into a powder.

In a bowl, place 35gr of butter, 35gr of icing sugar and 35gr of pecan powder.

Add 35gr of egg. To do this, crack an egg, lightly beat it with a fork and weigh out 35gr.

With a whisk at maximum speed, mix until you obtain a very fluffy mixture.

Place the mixture into a piping bag.

As before, you can use a jug to help. :-)

After 15 minutes of baking, you can take the tartlet bases out of the oven. They will not be completely baked, don't worry, this is normal.

Cut the tip of the piping bag containing the pecan cream.

Distribute this cream among the tartlets.

To add some crunch, place a few whole pecans into the cream.

Bake again in the oven at 160°C for 20 minutes.

After baking, let the tartlets cool completely before removing the rings.

Once the tartlets are completely cooled, remove the rings.

If you have difficulty and it sticks a little, use a sharp knife to go around the tartlets.

Using the microplane grater, even out the edges to get nice, neat tartlets. Be gentle, it grates extremely well! ;-)

Now all our elements are ready. Let's move on to the finishing touches.

Decoration

Unmould your mousses onto baking paper and return them to the freezer.

For this recipe, I tested the white mirror glaze from Silikomart which is a new addition to our range.

It is really great, you get a lovely shiny glaze with a beautiful colour and you don't even need to blend it. :-)

To glaze all 8 mousses, one jar is enough.

For a beautiful result, make the mirror glaze on the same day, about 4h before serving them.

Unfortunately, this product is currently no longer available in our range. On our blog, you will find an ideal recipe to make your own homemade mirror glaze, just change the colour: mirror glaze recipe.

Here is how to go about it:

Pour the jar of glaze into a bowl and add 10gr of water.

Place it in the microwave at 600Watt for 30 seconds and mix it. If the glaze is not warm enough, put it back in the microwave for a few seconds.

The ideal temperature for pouring the mirror glaze is about 37°C. A thermometer is essential for this. Here we really like the infrared thermometer.

Pour the glaze into a jug, it will be easier to pour. :-)

Place a rack over a plate/drip tray.

I recommend glazing 3 palets at a time, so they stay well frozen, and you can recover the glaze in between.

Take your palets out of the freezer and glaze them immediately, being very careful to cover them completely with glaze!

Gently tap the rack to remove the excess glaze.

Using a small angled spatula, carefully move the palets onto the tartlet bases.

For a beautiful finish, roughly blend 30gr of pecans.

Distribute the blended pecans all around the palets.

For the final touch, place a thin slice of pear at the last moment, just before serving.

I recommend making this recipe over several days so as not to get discouraged, for example:

D-2: the caramel pears and the pear mousse

D-1: the tartlet bases and the pecan cream.

Day D: decoration and finishing touches.

The tartlets will keep for 2 days in the fridge in a closed box.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Wishing you a lovely Sunday, food lovers!

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found below the recipe.