Barcelona & A Recipe for Poire Vin Blanc

Last week, I went to Barcelona for a short  break with my sister.

I walked around the city just exploring & taking photos.

After the break, I made these pear & caramel entremets.

I saw the red wine pear entremets posted on Evan's Kitchen Ramblings & that reminds me of this recipe which I've designed a while back.

Finally got the chance to make these & it tastes absolutely gorgeous!

I really love the white wine poached pears & the caramel mousse.

Refreshingly tangy, fragrant yet rich & creamy.

I was regret that I didn't have another piece before heading back to London...

Poire vin Blanc (12 x 3" hemisphere):

Compote Poire

6 pears, peeled & cored

500 g white wine

120 g sugar

1/2 lemon, zest only

1 vanilla pod, cut & split

Put all ingredients except pears in a large cooking pot, gently bring it to boil.

Put in the pears & simmer for 30 min, set aside to cool.

Drain & reserve the white wine, cut the pears into thin slices.

Gelée de poire au vin blanc (12 x ~1.5" round discs)

240 ml white wine from pear compote

8 g gelatine leaves

1 pear from pear compote, sliced

Dissolve gelatine in white wine over hot water.

Arrange pear slices in silicon mould (I used mini muffin silicon mould)

Pour in the wine & refrigerate to set.

Genoise Blanche

180 g eggs (~3 large eggs)

70 g sugar

14 g honey

50 g plain flour

25 g corn flour

10 g butter, melted

17 g milk

Preheat oven to 160C, line a parchment paper on a baking pan.

Combine butter & milk, warm to 40C.

Combine eggs, honey & sugar in a large mixing bowl & sit over a pan of simmering water, beat with electric beater at high speed until hot then remove from heating.

Continue beating for another 8-10 min until pale & fluffy.

Fold in the flour gently.

Fold in the milk until smooth.

Bake for 15-20 min or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool on a wired rack.

Mousse Caramel

Sauce Caramel

25 g glucose

62 g sugar

25 g water

95 g whipping cream

Caramelise sugar over gentle heating, carefully stir in water, glucose & whipping cream.

Set aside to cool.

48 g egg yolks

18 g sugar

4.5 g gelatine leaves, bloomed in cold water

235 g whipping cream, whipped up

In a saucepan, combine egg yolks, sugar & water, cook over low heat to ~82C, stir constantly while heating until it becomes thick.

Remove from heating, add in the bloomed gelatine & stir to dissolve.

Fold with caramel sauce & whipped cream.

Glacage vin Blanc

25 g apricot glazing jam

2 tsp white wine from pear compote

Combine & stir until smooth.

Composition

Cut the cake into 2.5" round discs, brush generous amount of white wine from pear compote on the cake.

Divide the mousse on the hemisphere mould about 2/3 full.

Place a jelly in the middle & a cake, press down & remove excess mousse.

Refrigerate to set.

Remove carefully from the mould, decorate with the poached pear slices & brush with glaze.