The famous Porcupine pear salty butter caramel of Top Chef

Poire Herisson Caramel

It’s the most famous of all pears that enabled Cyrille Zen to reach the finale of Top Chef. The Porcupine pear, a perfect dessert to impress your friends and become a budding chef. You can now play at being an apprentice…

For 8 persons

Preparation : 40 minutes

Cooking : 1 hour 20

Step 1 : The pear syrup

In a big pan put together the sugar, the basic, the vanilla pod slit in two, the Chinese badian and the water. Bring to a boil to obtain a syrup.

Peel and empty the pears from below. Poach them in the syrup at low flame for 30 minutes. Set aside in a warm place.

Step 2 : The apples-basil sauce

Peel the pear and the apples, remove their hearts and slice up the flesh in cubes. Wash and chisel the basil.

Reassemble the pieces of fruit in a pan. Add the sugar, the butter and the basil. Cook for 15 à 20 minutes on a low flame.

Incorporate the Tonka bean and cook some more for a few minutes. Set aside.

Step 3 : The crumble

Preheat your over to 180°C/thermostat 6. Mix the flour, the sugar, the almond powder and the butter with the tip of the fingers in order to obtain a grainy dough.

Spread this dough with a pastry roller between two sheets of sulfurized paper and bake for 10 minutes at 180°C/thermostat 6.

Step 4 : The salty butter caramel topping

Put the salty butter, the sugar and the water in a pan. Heat on low flame until you have a blond caramel. Incorporate the cream and bring to a boil.

Mix and set aside.

Step 5 : The presentation

Stuff the pears with the apple-basil sauce. Place a pear in each plate and sprinkle the surface with crumble shards. Pour the salty butter caramel over each pear.


Also discover the apple cake of Beatriz Gonzalez and the recipe for the no-gluten pavlova.

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Ingredients :

The pear syrup

- 8 Williams pears

- 300 grams of sugar

- 1 vanilla pod

- 1 Chinese badian

- 6 leaves of basil

- 70 centiliters of water

The apples-basil sauce

- 3 golden apples

- 1 Williams pear

- 6 leaves of basil

- 100 grams of sugar

- 30 grams of butter

- 1 pinch of grated Tonka bean

The crumble

- 100 grams of flour

- 100 grams or sugar

- 50 grams of almond powder

- 100 grams of butter

The salty butter caramel topping

- 200 grams of sugar

- 100 grams of salty butter

- 3 centiliters of water

- 30 centiliters of liquid cream

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