Grilled Pears with Mascarpone and Molten Chocolate
Soft, sweet, juicy pears filled with a puddle of warm chocolate, coated with a creamy mascarpone, vanilla custard and finished with melting, grated chocolate deliciousness. Ridiculously quick and easy to make, this classic combination of pear and chocolate literally melts in the mouth. The most important thing to remember, and arguably the most difficult aspect of this recipe, is making sure that the pears are perfectly ripe and ready to eat.
Ingredients shown per person
Ingredients
Ingredients below are per person:
- 2 heaped tablespoonfuls of mascarpone cheese
- 1 teaspoon caster sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional but recommended)
- a few drops of brandy, kahlua or crème de cacao (optional)
- 1 pear, it must be ripe and ready to eat
- 20g/4 squares of chocolate of choice. (I used Cadbury’s Dairy Milk)
Instructions
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Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients and preheat the grill to a high setting.
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Mix the mascarpone cheese with the vanilla extract, sugar and brandy, kahlua or crème de cacao, if using.
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Cut the pears in half, remove and discard cores and sit, hollow side up in an ovenproof dish. (If they wobble over, trim the other side so they sit up straight.)
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Fill each hollow with 1 square/5g chocolate.
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Top each pear half with 1 heaped tablespoon mascarpone, making sure that the chocolate is completely covered.
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Place the pears under the grill, about 10 cms below the heat source. Cook for around 4 – 8 minutes. Keep a close eye on it, to make sure it doesn’t burn. It is ready when the mascarpone has melted to form a delicious vanilla custard around the pears and the chocolate in the centre is very soft.
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Remove from the oven, decant onto serving plates and finely grate over the remaining chocolate. It will melt into the hot mascarpone. Serve warm.
Recipe Notes
Equipement:
- chopping board and knife
- baking dish
- measuring spoons
- small mixing bowl
- fine grater
Where is this recipe from?
This recipe is adapted from my Grilled Peaches with Mascarpone and Raspberries which is, in turn, based on Nigel’s Slater’s ‘Grilled Plums with Blackberries, Mascarpone and Brown Sugar’, published in his wonderful cookery book Real Food (pg 232). I have basically just replaced the peaches with pears, the raspberries with chocolate and topped it with grated chocolate as opposed to demerara sugar.