Impress your guests or just treat yourself with this Baked white chocolate, poached pear and pistachio mille-feuille from Chef Tom Garland-Jones at The Tennants Arms in Kilnsey.
INGREDIENTS
2 Sheets of pre-made puff pastry, cut into rectangles
POACHED PEAR
4 pears
1/2 lemon, juiced
400g of caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
500ml of water
1 vanilla pod
1 star anise
CARAMELISED WHITE CHOCOLATE
150g of white chocolate, broken into pieces
PASTRY CREAM
700ml of milk
300ml of cream
1/2 vanilla pod
2 tbsp of apricot jam
6 egg yolks
2 eggs
150g of caster sugar
80g of cornflour
CHOCOLATE SHARDS
50g dark chocolate
50g White chocolate
TO DECORATE
Small handful of pistachios, blitzed fine
100g pistachios, roughly chopped
50g Chantilly cream
Mixed berries
Icing sugar, to dust
RECIPE
Preheat the oven to 120°C
Poach the peeled pears in a pan of water with the sugar, star anise, split vanilla pod, juice of half a lemon and a cinnamon stick, then cook until soft. Once chilled, cut into thin slices and cube ½ of one.
Place white chocolate onto a baking tray and place in the oven for 10 minutes. Then stir in the tray and return to the oven for 30-60 minutes, stirring the chocolate every 10 minutes. Eventually, the chocolate will be smooth and caramelised.
Line a separate baking tray with baking parchment and spread a small amount of plain, melted white chocolate on to it and then a small amount of melted dark chocolate on top and blend it in, without mixing the two colours. Blend a handful of pistachios and scatter this across the chocolate. Put in the fridge to set.
To make the pastry cream, place the milk and cream in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the vanilla seeds, vanilla pod, apricot jam and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs with the sugar and cornflour.
When the liquid is on the point of boiling, gradually add it into the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Return this mixture to the pan and cook on a low heat until it thickens. Being careful not to scramble the eggs so make sure that you stir continuously with a spatula.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, before putting the mixture into a piping bag, in the fridge to set.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Place baking parchment onto a flat rectangular tray and lay rectangles of your pre-made puff pastry on top. Cover with another sheet of baking parchment and place a tray on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Place a blob of the caramelised white chocolate on the plate and smear across with the back of a warm, wet spoon for decoration. Place an oblong of filo pastry on a plate, slightly over the chocolate swipe, pipe some of the pastry cream onto the pastry, drizzle some melted chocolate, scatter a few pistachios, then some slices of poached pear and repeat until the desired height is met.
Atop the caramelised white chocolate swipe, pipe small blobs of pastry cream, smaller blobs of Chantilly cream, scatter a few pistachios, cubes of pear and mixed berries. Then snap off some of the cold chocolate shards and decorate. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.
Prior to arriving in the Dales, Tom Garland-Jones made his career break in America as the Executive Chef for Big Cedar Lodge, the country’s leading outdoor resort, which included a nature reserve promoting farm to fork and stream to fork dining.
During his tenure there, Tom opened the golf course restaurant which hosted PGA tours, as well as Top of the Rock, a fine dining restaurant with a whisky bar. On returning to the UK, Tom worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, was
appointed Head Chef at the Earl of Pontefract and then Roger Thorpe Manor
Hotel in Badsworth. The Tennants Arms Hotel is his first solo venture, a flagship on which to build with his talented team.