Monday, September 14, 2009

Pear and chocolate fudge tartlets

Pear and chocolate fudge tartlets / Tortinhas de fudge de chocolate com pêra

My brother and I got a dog when we were 4 and 6, respectively – I found the following photograph while going through some of our old stuff at my father’s:

Xuxinha

That’s me and Xuxa (her name), when I was about 9 years old. :D

My brother used to feed her just about anything – every time he was eating something, he’d share it with her, and that included bread, yogurt, and all kinds of sweets. But chocolate was her favorite. :)

She is no longer with us – my brother had a fever for days when she died – but I’m sure she would love these chocolatey tartlets. :D

Pear and chocolate fudge tartlets / Tortinhas de fudge de chocolate com pêra

Pear and chocolate fudge tartlets
slightly adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Chocolate pastry:
¾ cup (105g) all purpose flour
50g pure icing sugar
½ cup (45g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
pinch of salt
60g unsalted butter, slightly cold, coarsely chopped
1 egg

Pear topping:
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
5cm piece of ginger, coarsely chopped
2 Packham pears, peeled, halved and cored
pouring cream, to serve

Chocolate filling:
100g dark chocolate, chopped - 70% cocoa solids
100g unsalted butter, room temperature, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
½ cup (100g) caster sugar
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (80g) all purpose flour, sifted
½ cup (45g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted

For chocolate pastry, pulse flour, icing sugar, cocoa and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and process until fine crumbs form. Add egg and 1 tablespoon water and pulse until dough just comes together – I used my Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.
Transfer to a lightly floured work surface, form into a disc, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (about 1 hour).

Make the pear topping: combine sugar, ginger and 200ml water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low, add pear and cook until soft (5-7 minutes). Using a slotted spoon, remove pear and slice each half lengthways – you should get about 6-7 slices out of each half. Set aside until required.*

Grease eight 9cm-brioche molds and dust with cocoa. Divide pastry into 8 even pieces and roll each piece between two pieces lightly floured baking paper to approximately 12cm in diameter. Line moulds with pastry and trim excess. Prick dough all over with a fork. Refrigerate until firm and chilled (about 30 minutes).

Preheat oven to 190ºC/374ºF. Place molds on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven to 160ºC/320ºF.

Meanwhile, for chocolate filling, melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar to combine. Add flour and cocoa, whisking to combine, then whisk in chocolate mixture. Using a plastic spatula, fold mixture until smooth and glossy.
Divide filling among molds and bake until tops begin to appear dry (30-35 minutes)**. Cool slightly, turn out molds and serve topped with pear and cream.

* the pears turned dark as soon as taken out of the syrup – a sprinkle of lemon juice should solve the problem

** a friend of mine who tried the tartlets told me they would taste even better with a creamier filling – less time in the oven next time

Makes 8 – I used 9cm tartlet pans and got 11 tartlets (just buttered them well – did not dust with cocoa)

32 comments:

Christine said...

Yummy!
This sounds super delicious. I love chocolate :-)

Barbara said...

Chocolate and pears together- Wow! These look delicious and dark chocolatey.
(Did you name Xuxa after the Brazilian actress?)

Amy said...

Oh my gosh!! this looks amazing... the pears would have to be perfect though..

Lucy said...

Ooh who wouldn't love these tarts - they look sublime! What a tasty combination :)

Nora said...

Mmmmmm, they look so good. Great combination and beautiful tarts. Yum yum yum!

Elizabeth B said...

Oh geez, if I ever succeed in making all of the desserts you post here, I'll weigh 500 pounds! ^_^ Beautiful as always, and they look so, so tasty.

A Bowl Of Mush said...

These look really fantastic! I love chocolate and pear together!

ChichaJo said...

These tarts look wonderful! I love chocoalte on chocolate...and the pears I imagine give just the right finish!

Anh said...

The tartlet is fantastic! And I love that old photo of yours!

anna said...

Hmm, I've never had chocolate with pears before. I bet it's quite yummy!

Bron said...

a classic combination I adore, they look super Patricia xx

Emily said...

I love that picture! So cool. Is that a bow in your hair?

These tarts look good. It's almost pear season here!

Starr said...

Wondering how to adapt this for our Lactose-Intolerant family. Shortening or lard for the pastry, but would a neutral oil work for the filling? I'm thinking that the dark chocolate provides so much flavor that the butter flavor would not be missed very much.

Jennifer said...

What a lovely memory of your sweet dog! That picture is cute!

I love pears with chocolate but have not done them in tarts before!! This looks SOOO good!!

Dynagrip said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dynagrip said...

Yo Patricia, I know you just baked tarts and all and Imma let you finish but chocolate kills dogs, I'm just saying

Karine said...

These tartlets look so good! Thanks for sharing :)

Katie said...

Chocolate and pears go so well together. They look so tasty

Nic said...

Lovely looking tarts, I've never had much luck with chocolate pastry!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Christine, thank you!

Barbara, tks for stoppping by! And my mother did name her after the famous Xuxa - how do you know her? Are you Brazilian? :D

Amy, the pears were good, trust me! :D

Lucy, thank you!

Nora, thank you!

Hi, Elizabeth! I'll tell you my "secret" - I have one, share the others with my family and friends and work out like crazy. :D
Thank you!

A Bowl of Mush, they go so well together!

Joey, the pears are really good!
Thank you, darling!

Anh, thank you!
xoxo

Anna, they are really good together!

Bron, thank you, sweetie!

Emily, it's a bow with some feathers. :)
Thank you! xx

Starr, I'm not sure - unfortunately, I'm not familiar with those substitutions...

Jen, thank you!

Christopher, get a life.

Karine, thank you for stopping by!

Katie, thank you!

Nic, it was my first chocolate pastry and it worked really well, darling - maybe this recipe is a keeper!

Dynagrip said...

Look, I'm sorry your brother killed your dog but chocolate is in fact poison to dogs, especially baker's chocolate. It's incredibly irresponsible to encourage the feeding of human food to pets as a lot of seemingly innocuous substances are not good for them.

I suggest referring to this in the future.

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.html

Chocolate is at the top of the list.

"When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death. Note that darker chocolate is more dangerous than milk chocolate. White chocolate has the lowest level of methylxanthines, while baking chocolate contains the highest."

Patricia Scarpin said...

Christopher, whatever.

The Food Hunter said...

Delicious!

Nina said...

Um, Christopher could have found a better way to say it but he is correct. Chocolate is POISONOUS to dogs. PLEASE, PLEASE, if you have a dog and you don't want to believe a comment in a food blog, at least look it up.

kimberleyblue said...

chocolate is indeed poisonous to dogs...but you can just send the extra tartlets my way, because wow, do they ever look and sound delicious!

Deeba PAB said...

Is it legal to post so many delighful bookmarkables one after another? Just gorgeous! And oh, I love Xuxa...how sweet!

gnutmeg said...

Thank you Christopher - I clicked on the comments with the purpose of making sure someone mentioned to the good cooks of this blog that chocolate and dogs do not mix.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

You know I agree with Deeba. There's so much gorgeous looking and sounding food here, I can't decide what to make! :)
This one looks especially good because of the chocolate.

Danda said...

I can't believe how unsensitive some people can be. In Brazil, as early as 10 years ago, almost nobody knew how warmful chocolate could be to dogs, not to mention a children. When I was a kid I also had a dog to whom I would offer a bite of anything I ate, chocolate included. I had no idea it could poison her. Sadly, she died with 16 y.o, while I was in college. Even if her dog died by chocolate ingestion, wouldn't this be bad enough? Now, everybody knows you shouldn't feed a dog chocolate. Stop being so patronazing.
It's a lovely picture by the way!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Dear Danda,
Thank you for your comment. Clearly those people do not understand my post and/or how dogs are and used to be treated here. My dog died of a infection in her womb, after escaping and mating with a dog on the street. It had nothing to do with eating chocolate.

Can't thank you enough for your support. I hope to see you around here again!
xx

fiore said...

Hey this is an awesome recipe! Thanks for sharing it! I just made it and turned out great.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Fiore, that is excellent news! Thank YOU for letting me know how the recipe turned out!

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