Pears and chocolate pie

Pears and chocolate pie

Dear friends, when we prepare this famous dish we must remember that the most difficult step is the pastry: to obtain a perfect pastry (pasta frolla) we need some tips.
Pay attention to not let the butter dissolve and to make the flour release less gluten as possible, so look at: 1) room temperature: short time of kneading; 2) your hands temperature: touch the pastry with metal palette knife or use a food processor 3) kneading table temperature: cold surface.
Remember that the butter quantity must always be half of the flour quantity and that the pastry must rest in the fridge for at least one hour
Good luck!



Ingredients

pastry
250 gr flour (150 gr flour “00” and 100 gr Maizena)
125 gr butter
100 gr sugar (or icing sugar)
1 egg
 cinnamon
1 vanilla berry
                                                      salt

garnish
2 pears (suggested Kaiser type)
100 gr fresh cream
100 gr dark chocolate
candied sugar:
100 gr Sugar


50 ml water
a pinch of salt



Cooking steps

pastry (with food processor)

mix the sugar with the egg, a pinch of cinnamon and the vanilla (the inside part of the vanilla berry cut in length)
chop the butter roughtly
add the butter and the salt and mix it for one minute
put the flour into the processor and mix the pastry at a low speedy until it begins to come together (never more than about 1 minute)
turn off the mixer
with a palette knife extract the pastry and make a ball with it
cover it with some plastic wrap
let it rest into the fridge for one hour at least (it would be better to prepare it the day before and let it rest into the fridge for 24 h)

Then
Slice the pears in lenght
take the cake pan
cover the bottom of the cake pan with the buttered baking paper
set out the pieces of the pear on the bottom of the cake pan just like a flower

Now prepare the candied sugar
Combine your sugar and water in a pot, begin with water and after put the sugar

When the sugar is completely wet heat the ingredients at a medium temperature until it beginnes to become sligtly brown, then put a fork into the sugar to check the consistence. When it sticks and start to go stringy, it’s ready
Pour the candied sugar just to cover the pears
Let it cools off

In the meantime
roll out the pastry between two wax paper sheets
form a circle with the pastry of the same diameter of the baking pan
carefully pick up the wax paper with the pastry and place it into the baking pan covering your pears and candied sugar
remove the top wax paper sheet
press the sides
then poke some holes in the dough with a fork
put it into the preheated oven (180°) and bake until the sides become sligtly brown
take out the cake pan from the oven
take the baking pan out of the oven
tip the pie on a dish
let it rest until it cools off, in the meantime prepare the chocolate sauce

Chocolate sauce
Put the fresh cream into a pan and cook until it start boiling
Turn off the flame and put the chopped chocolate into the boiling cream, stirring until it completely dissolves

Finally
Garnish the pie with the chocolate
Let the pie cool off