Ingredients
Directions
For the pear jelly, heat up pear juice. Mix together the sugar and agar-agar and sprinkle over the hot pear juice whisking swiftly and boil. Remove from the heat and add lemon juice. Chill completely. Meanwhile, peel, core and cube pears (separate Bosc from Bartlett). Mix Williams pear cubes with lemon juice and set aside. In a hot frying pan, sautée Bosc pears with olive oil and sugar on high heat for about 3 to 4 min. Transfer into a large bowl to combine with the Williams pear cubes. With an immersion blender, smooth out the chilled pear jelly, add crushed juniper berries; blend. Fold jelly in the pear cubes mixture. Scoop out and fill the mini half-sphere silicone mold (1Tbsp/15g) and freeze completely. Un-mold mini-half spheres (wear disposable gloves), seal them by two forming a one ounce (30g) insert; keep frozen.
Soak gelatin sheets in cold water to soften, and drain. Meanwhile, heat up cocoa butter over direct heat or microwave (cocoa butter can boil) and pour over white chocolate; mix well and set aside. Puree pear with lemon juice and bring to boil; remove from heat, add juniper berries and the cocoa butter-white chocolate melted mixture and blend. Add gelatin and xanthan and blend. Add heavy cream and mascarpone and give a good emulsion. Refrigerate for 12 hours. Beat to soft peaks before filling mold.
Fill each apple shaped mold half way through with the whipped pear ganache and place a frozen pear jelly insert in the center. The apple jelly inserts must not touch the bottom of the mold. Fill up each cavity with remaining mousse pressing the mousse inside to avoid any possible gaps left between the insert and the edges of the mold. Freeze for 12 hours. Refrigerate remaining pear mousse. Un-mold fruit and flip (curved side down) and pipe out a little head on each. Freeze for a few hours or until it has hardened. Wearing gloves, smooth out each fruit with your hands to resemble a pear and put it back in the freezer. Make another batch with leftover mousse.
Soak gelatin sheets in cold water to soften, and drain. Cook water, sugar and corn syrup to 218ºF/103ºC and mix in gelatin, condensed milk and vanilla. Pour over white chocolate, let sit to melt and blend well without adding air, and sieve. Tap over the counter to remove remaining air bubbles and chill to set. Rewarm to 90ºF/34ºC before using. For the pear stems: blend some dark chocolate in a food processor until it soften, and shape into apple stems. Chocolate marzipan can be used instead.
Melt cocoa butter first and mix in white chocolate, add food coloring, blend, and sieve. Use at 113ºF/45ºC.
Insert a short bamboo skewer (one inch dip) inside each pear cake. Place them back in the freezer. Warm up chocolate shell glaze to 113ºF/45ºC – blend with immersion blender a few seconds; keep warm. In the mean time, warm up chocolate mirror to 90ºF/34ºC. Glaze frozen pear (one at the time), in the chocolate shell glaze first. Once set, dip in the mirror glaze. Repeat until done. For the last touch up, give some reddish effect with a few drops of water base red food coloring using a portable airbrush. Remove skewers and insert stems. Place the finished pears in the refrigerator overnight to thaw, or 2 days max. Enjoy!