Upside-down tart with vermicelli

Hello food lovers!

Get ready to delight your guests with this ultra indulgent upside-down chestnut vermicelli tart.

Under a beautiful piping of chestnut vermicelli hides a soft chestnut-pear sponge and a melt-in-your-mouth pear compote.

For a crunchy touch, small meringues are used to decorate this lovely tart.

Let's get started with a tart full of autumnal flavours!

To make this tart for about 10 people, you will need:

Soft chestnut-pear sponge

- 75gr of butter

- 75gr of sugar

- 3 eggs

- 75gr of spelt flour

- 60gr of plain flour

- 8.3gr of baking powder

- 300gr of pears

- 220gr of chestnut purée

Pear compote

- 2 gelatin leaves

- 400gr of Conference pears

- 200gr of pear purée

- 50gr of sugar

Chestnut cream

- 400gr of chestnut purée

- 60gr of heavy cream

Decoration

- Mini meringues

- Gold leaves

We'll start by preparing the soft sponge.

Soft chestnut-pear sponge

In a large bowl, whisk 75gr of sugar and 75gr of butter until fluffy.

Meanwhile, dice 300gr of pears into small cubes. For this recipe, I chose to use Conference pears — they are ideal both in a sponge and in a compote. Set them aside for now.

Preheat your oven to 180°C, fan setting.

Our butter/sugar mixture has creamed up nicely. Add 3 eggs and mix again for a few seconds.

The batter will be quite liquid — that's perfectly normal. ;-)

Add 75gr of spelt flour and 60gr of plain flour.

Using a kitchen scale spoon, precisely weigh 8.3gr of baking powder.

Whisk everything at medium speed for 2 minutes to obtain a smooth, homogeneous sponge batter.

Add the diced pears and 220gr of chestnut purée, mix again for 30 seconds with the whisk, then finish with a spatula to obtain a well-combined mixture.

Grab your upside-down tart mould. You may have already seen it in various recipes — I have to admit, it's a bit of our favourite mould. :-)

Generously spray the mould with release spray to avoid any unpleasant surprises when unmoulding!

Pour the sponge batter into the mould.

Spread the batter evenly and bake for 25 minutes in the middle of the preheated oven.

Once the sponge is baked, let it cool completely at room temperature before unmoulding.

Once fully cooled, unmould it onto a nice serving plate or board.

The sponge can be kept for 2 days, well wrapped in the fridge, or 6 months in the freezer, well wrapped.

We can now move on to making the pear compote.

Pear compote

Start by soaking 2 gelatin leaves in a jug of very cold water.

Peel and core 400gr of pears — as with the sponge cake, I chose to use Conference pears.

Cut the pears into small cubes.

In a pan, add the diced pears, 50gr of sugar and 200gr of pear purée, then mix well.

Heat everything over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the pears are soft and tender.

Off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatin, mix well, then pour everything into a bowl.

Allow the mixture to cool in the fridge.

Take the sponge and the cooled compote. Pour the compote over the sponge.

Place everything in the fridge while you prepare the last step of the recipe.

We can now move on to the final step — the chestnut cream, which will be piped over the pear compote.

Chestnut cream

In a bowl, combine 400gr of chestnut purée and 60gr of heavy cream.

Mix everything with a whisk to obtain a smooth, pliable mixture that can be piped easily.

For piping, use a nozzle N°233.

Pour the chestnut/cream mixture into a piping bag and pipe in circles over the tart.

Last step — the decoration. :-)

Decoration

We chose a simple, clean decoration by placing a few small white meringues on the tart.

To finish, a touch of elegance with gold leaves. Use precision tweezers to handle the gold leaves.

Whatever you do, don't try to handle them with your fingers.

And here is the result: an ultra indulgent autumnal tart. :-P

It can be kept for 2 days in the fridge in a box.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Have a lovely Sunday, food lovers.

Sophie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.