Pear and Chocolate Pie Crust, Crostata Pere e Cioccolato in Italian, is a classic Italian pastry, a mouth-watering dessert that is easy to make, a base of shortcrust pastry whose consistency is crumbly, semi-soft, perfectly integrated with the pear-chocolate filling where we have used Rum to jazz up the pears.

Non-Stick Round Cake Pan 28 cm, Preparation time 20 mins + 30 mins in the fridge, Cooking time about 40 mins

For the shortcrust pastry:

  • 300 g of wheat flour
  • 100 g of icing sugar
  • 150 g of cold unsalted butter
  • 2 eggs
  • a teaspoon of dried yeast or baking soda
  • Grated orange or lemon peel
  • a pinch of salt

For the pear and chocolate filling:

  • 3 Williams pears
  • 10 g of unsalted butter
  • A teaspoon of cinnamon powder
  • 180 g dark chocolate 70 % cocoa content – cut into chunks or grated
  • 50 ml of Rum
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 ml fresh double cream
  • 50 g of brown sugar

Method

Cut the cold butter into chunks and put it with the flour, sugar, salt, grated orange or lemon peel in the mixer or whatever you have and mix and start kneading.

As soon as the fats are mixed with the flour in a sort of big crumbs, add the beaten eggs and a pinch of salt.

Mixing just enough to amalgamate the shortcrust pastry into a ball-shape, without overworking it.

Wrap the shortcrust pastry in cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 30 mins.

Making the filling:
Wash, peel and dice the pears, then sauté them in a pan with 10 g of unsalted butter, the cinnamon powder and 50 g of brown sugar. Sauté 3 mins, add 50 ml of Rum, stir and cook for another 2 mins. Allow to cool down.

Put the grated chocolate in a saucepan in a bain-marie over moderate heat. Add the fresh double cream a little at a time and when the chocolate is perfectly melted, turn off the heat.

Divide yolks from whites.

Beat up the yolks and incorporate them into the chocolate, stirring gently. Whip up the whites, add a pinch of salt, then incorporate them into the chocolate as well.

Roll out the dough 5 mm thickness or on how thick you want the crostata to be.

Line the bottom of a cake tin with parchment paper or just butter it, lay the shortcrust pastry and prick it with a fork so it won’t swollen during cooking, bake it in the oven to 160 Fan °C for 10 minutes.

Take it off the oven, fill it with a first layer of caramelized pears well pressed on the bottom, then pour over the chocolate ganache.

Back in the oven160 Fan °C for 15 mins.

Allow Crostata to cool down, then serve it.

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