Marjo, the good tutorials: the belle-hélène pear in stage outfit

In the editorial office of ELLE à table, when we need advice on a recipe or a trick, it’s always Marjolaine – Marjo for short – who we call.

For her, cooking is a moment of joy and sharing, never a source of stress. As a result, she is always available to explain a slightly technical gesture or discuss a little-known ingredient. From now on, she will guide you to easily achieve the sweet or savory creations that are creating a buzz among chefs or on the networks.

Hélène, my beautiful Hélène…

The exact origin of its creation is not really established, even if the name of Auguste Escoffier seems to be indisputably associated with it. The original recipe would have been designed in homage to the opera buffa “La Belle Hélène” by Jacques Offenbach in 1864, a real hit at the time. Poached pear, vanilla ice cream, hot chocolate sauce flowing in cascades, and sometimes flaked almonds, all that was needed to make this sweetness last. Today, I suggest you dress the poached pear entirely in dough and cover the bottom of its coat with melted chocolate, for a true opera dessert. Thus, we find chocolate in different textures and temperatures when tasting.

My advice

Keep the syrup in which the pears have been cooked to make cocktails, for example.
Do not spread the dough too thinly, it must be of a certain thickness to soak up the juice of the pear and maintain its hold.
Cut the base of the pears so that they stand vertically without wilting. Place them on a plate and first roll the dough at the base, level with the plate, turning around the fruit, up to the peduncle. Do not put any dough under the bulb, it will not hold.
When cooking, the pears shrivel slightly in their dough shell: you can therefore pour the melted chocolate into the space between the pear and the dough or around the edge.
If you’re craving a treat, garnish with a scoop of ice cream.

Ingredients

For 4 people

4 nice pears
For the syrup
100 g of sugar
1 squeeze of lemon juice
1 vanilla pod
For the dough
300 g of flour
20 g brown sugar
100 g of semi-salted butter
1 egg
For finishing
1 egg yolk
200 g of dark pastry chocolate

Step 1

Peel the pears, keeping the stem.

2nd step

Split the vanilla pod, remove the seeds with the tip of a knife. Prepare the syrup: heat 1 l of water with the sugar, lemon juice, seeds and vanilla pod.

Step 3

When the syrup is simmering, immerse the whole pears for 15 minutes. Leave to cool completely in the syrup.

Step 4

For the dough: mix the flour with the brown sugar, the butter cut into pieces and the egg.

Step 5

Start kneading, add 4 tbsp. of cold water gradually. Form a ball.

Step 6

Wrap it and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Step 7

Preheat the oven to 190°/th. 6-7. Spread the dough on a sheet of baking paper, cut 1 cm wide strips.

Step 8

Drain the pears, cut off the base.

Step 9

Place them vertically on a plate.

Step 9

Beat the egg yolk with a little water. Wrap each pear with strips of dough, starting from the bottom and moving up until the fruit is completely covered. Seal the pieces of dough together with the beaten egg yolk.

Step 10

Once the pears are coated with dough, brush everything with egg.

Step 11

Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Step 12

Melt two thirds of the chocolate in a bain-marie, brush the pears with melted chocolate on the lower half. Place them on a serving plate and let harden.