Poire D'Eve

Following my success with the matcha opera, I wanted to try my hand at making other layered desserts. Who else should I turn to but my favourite site, Tartelette. I've bookmarked most of her recipes but the one that I decided to make was this. I was in the mood for fruits. And lately, pears are on my mind alot, they are sweet, and cheap, and plentiful. When I dropped my the supermart and saw those tiny Honey Belle pears from New Zealand, I immediately took a box and place it into my grocery basket. No need to think what I should do with them first. I can easily go online and check my bookmarks for inspiration. And when I did, it was surely the Poire D'Eve that I must do. Poached pears, and crunchy hazalnut biscuit base? I'm in.

Poire D'Eve

Honey Belle pears; Poached pears

Poached pears; Bite sized Poire D'Eve; Poire D'Eve entremets; Spices

It was my first time using so many different spices for poaching fruits. The most I ever did was just making up a simply sugar syrup and a vanilla bean for flavour. The recipe for poached pears for this recipe called for cloves, cinnamon, star anise, and vanilla. It sounds delish, so lead the way, Spices! The house (or kitchen, at least) smelled so good when I was poaching the pears. The spices reminded me of autumn/fall flavours as cinnamon was the key scent that perfumed the place.

Completed Poire D'Eve; Hazelnut chocolate feuillantine ingredients

I love hazelnuts, they are like one of my favourite nuts, alongside almonds, macadamia and walnuts. Speaking of nuts, I used to hate walnuts, but now I use it so frequently that I run through a small bag extremely fast. I gave in during my latest buy and got a 1kg bag of walnuts. I use them in granola, muffins, salads, the list goes on. Okay, I digress, back to hazelnuts. Mention a chocolate cake, with a hazelnut crunch biscuit layer, and I'm a sucker for it. I always wondered how do bakeries do that. And now I'm in the know! Hohoho. 

Layers broken down

Overall: I like how the flavours taste together. I think I overfolded the caramel mousse so it got a bit seperated and lumpy-looking. The hazelnut layer was yums. But it tend to turn soggy after a few days in the fridge. I reckon the next time I deal with this, I gotta make sure I freeze it immediately after making the layer, and avoiding wet layers near it to keep its crunch factor. I learn something new everytime I bake new stuff. The poached pears vanilla bavarian cream layer was nice, I didn't overfold the layer cos I made the caramel mousse first and thus, knew not to overfold this haha. It was a nice spice dessert, but somehow, I was feeling unwell during the week I made this, so I didn't enjoy it fully as I would have liked to. I shared some entremets with friends, and brought the bite sized ones along to a food outing with the SL ex-colleagues. Spread the love, spread the love. (:

And now, I think I might be starting a new chapter of my life. Not so sure. Seems like when I finally settle down, there are several more exciting opportunities popping up to shake my excitement. I was all geared up for the challenge at first, yet now, I hesitate, wondering if I should wait a while more...