I'm continuing my Creative Food (CF) series with pears stuffed with dark chocolate, steeped in red wine and baked in puff pastry.π You'll say there's not much creativity in that, since you've seen the pear-in-puff-pastry idea ten times over while scrolling through your Facebook feed.π Well, perhaps you're right, but the idea always struck me as very appealing, visually charming and inventive, so I worked myself up to it for a long time before I could present you with my own version, one that reflects my personality (wine and chocolate β my personality, I don't know whether to laugh or cryπππ). Anyway, stay with me and I promise you a very tasty dessert β and there'll be wine left over too (*clink, clink*)π.
As for the ingredients, I recommend choosingyeasted puff pastry, because that way the pears will look more nestled in, thanks to the way yeasted puff pastry puffs up so prettily. In short β better looking. To me. π Any pears will basically do, but I would advise choosing the firmest you can find β they are going to be baked, so the lessmush, the nicer they are to eat (I picked out the firmest Conference pears in the shop). The chocolate? Simple β dark (72% and up). And the wine β your choice; realistically any red wine works, from dry to sangria. π· This time I used sangria, because I thought its fruity freshness would go beautifully with the pears. I would also very much recommend serving vanilla ice cream or whipped cream with this dessert β it complements it perfectly and pulls the flavours together into one whole.
I should say up front that the pears will need to steep in the sangria for about 16 hours, and longer is fine. In a different red wine you can keep them for less time. This is how the pears take on a rosy colour and the flavour of the wine. The best part is that you really won't have to throw the wine away β after its time with the pears, the sangria will be even tastier.π€
