Pear and Vanilla Entremet Cake
A delicious light and rich cake in Entremet style that consists of a soft chewy nuts cake as a base and thicker layer of diplomate cream mixed with caramelized pears and burned brown sugar. To top it, I used dried pears to garnish which not only look pretty but is a beautiful way to use the parts of the pear that you’d be discarding anyway.
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Caramelized pears:
Cooking the pears in butter and sugar together with vanilla makes them incredibly soft and flavorful, make sure to prepare them in advance, preferably as the first thing to prepare as they need to cool before you can add them to the cream.
By halving the pears, cutting each half into two pieces, then slicing each of these quarters into 3 slices lengthwise before chopping them, gives you the perfect cube size for this cake. When slicing the cake, they look like beautiful transparent mosaics.
Cake with nuts or biscuit.
The difference between a cake and a biscuit in the french pastry is the texture, a biscuit is considered richer in terms of flavor and also texture, it has a chewiness to it and is usually baked in thin layers and without the use of baking powder. Meringue is often used to give it its lightness and chewiness. They are also often used in entremets.
I chose almonds for today’s recipe’s biscuit because almonds and pears are an amazing combination of flavors, hint: Tarte Bourdaloue! I briefly pulsed the nuts in a food processor to keep some texture to it and feel it in the bite.
Diplomate cream
Diplomate cream is basically custard cream, aka creme patissiere, that was cooked with an amount of gelatine and into which an amount of whipped cream is folded in to make it light in texture and flavor. It’s one of my favorite recipes and it is widely used in French pastry.
Make sure to mix the cream together with the whipped cream and the pears right before the assembling time before it completely sets.
After assembling, you will still need to refrigerate it for a couple of hours before unmolding and serving
The garnish:
I went for brown sugar and a torch because I love the burned cream taste with the vanilla and the custard, it reminds me of the creme brulee, which is one of my favorite desserts. The caramel note that it adds makes the cake perfect. It adds also to the texture. Alternatively, you can use simple whipped cream or a neutral or colored glaze.
The dried pear layers are an eyecatcher and actually taste very delicious, I like to crush them with honey to make them shiny, you can also use neutral glaze or glucose if you prefer to.
Watch the video recipe:
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Pear and Vanilla Entremet Style Cake
Ingredients
Caramelised pears with vanilla:
- 3 Pears
- 30 g Butter
- 40 g Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Cake with almonds
- 4 Egg yolks
- 55 g Sugar
- 70 g Egg whites (about 2,5)
- 20 g Sugar (for the meringue)
- 20 g All-purpose flour
- 25 g Corn starch
- 40 g Melted butter
- 30 g Crushed almonds
Diplomate cream
- 170 ml Milk
- 0,5 A vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Egg yolks
- 40 g Sugar
- 1 tbsp Corn starch
- 35 g Honey
- 3 Gelatine sheets About 5 to 6 grams
- 200 ml Heavy Cream
Garnishing
- 3 tbsp Brown sugar
- Dried pear slices
Instructions
Prepare the Pears
- Slice the center parts of the pears with the stems if you want to use them for the garnish. ( if not, you can skip the next steps and start by cubing the pears.)
- Toast the pear slices on a non-stick pan until soft and aromatic.
- Place them on a silicone mat or parchment paper and bake for 15 min in a 180C / 356F preheated aven.
- Peel and cube the rest of the pears into small cubes.
- In a saucepan cook the sugar with the butter until they caramelize.
- Add the cubed pears and vanilla and allow them to simmer for 5 minutes until they are soft.
- Allow them to totally cool.
Prepare the cake.
- Beat the egg whites, when they start foaming, add the sugar gradually while mixing until you have a nice smooth french meringue.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture thickens and becomes pale.
- Gently fold the meringue into the egg yolks and sugar mixture.
- Sift in the flour and the corn starch and use a spatula to gently fold them. in.
- Take 2 tbsp from the batter and add them to the melted butter. Mix well until well combined.
- Add the butter mixture to the rest of the cake batter and gently fold it in.
- Finally, add the crushed almonds or nuts of choice and fold them in. You can add a pinch of salt if you prefer to, I do.
- Spread the batter into a circular tin or mold with 22cm / 8,6inches in diameter, make sure to line the bottom with some parchment paper.
- Bake in a 180C/ 356F preheated over for 20 to 22 minutes and allow to cool after baking.
Prepare the cream.
- Soak the gelatine sheets into cold water.
- Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and beat until the mixture thickens and turns pale.
- Sift in the corn starch and mix again to incorporate it.
- In a saucepan add the vanilla seeds and the half vanilla bean, honey and the milk.
- Mix together for the honey to dissolve and bring it to a simmer.
- Squeeze the gelatine sheets from the water and add them to the vanilla milk as soon as it starts simmering.
- Whisk together until it is melted then remove from the heat.
- Sieve the simmered milk gradually into the egg yolks and sugar mixture.
- Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat while whisking until it thickens.
- Transfer to a clean bowl, cover with some foil, and allow it to totally cool.
- Whip the cold heavy cream until you have a nice airy cream, then gently fold it into the cooled custard cream.
- Use a hand mixer to have a creamy texture, then gently add the cubed pears to cream and use a spatula to fold them in.
Assembly
- Assemble the cake on a cake board or directly on the serving plate.
- Unmold the cake / biscuit, peel off the parchment paper, and use a bread knife to trim off the upper brown layer of the cake. (This is optional)
- Place the cake on the bottom, then add the cream with pears and use the back of the spoon to even it out and smooth the top.
- Refrigerate for 4 hours.
Garnishing
- Unmold the cake by removing the cake circle.
- Spread the brown sugar equally on the surface of the cake and use a torch to burn it and make a nice burned caramel layer.
- Brush the dried pears with some honey and lay them on the top of the cake.
- Happy baking and enjoy!