Pear and walnut cake

For about 5 to 6 portions – rectangular frame of 20 X 10 cm

Walnut praline
✔100g walnuts
✔50g caster sugar

Roast the walnuts on a baking tray for 15 minutes in the oven at 150°C. Make a caramel with the sugar and pour it onto baking paper. When it has cooled, break it into pieces and put it in the bowl of a blender. Add the walnuts and blend until you have a praline. Be careful, you need a good blender.

Walnut biscuit
✔65 g walnut powder
✔1 egg
✔2 egg whites
✔65 g icing sugar
✔20 g butter
✔15 g flour
✔15 g caster sugar

Make a hazelnut butter. In a saucepan, melt the butter until it takes on a nice colour and a hazelnut smell. Set aside. In a bowl, mix the whole egg with the icing sugar. Add the walnut powder, flour and melted butter. Mix well. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar. Gently fold them into the mixture with a spatula. Pour the biscuit dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the biscuit for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C. Remove the biscuit from the oven and allow it to cool before peeling it off the paper and cutting out a rectangle measuring 20X10cm.

Chocolate and walnut praline crisp
✔60g walnut praline
✔30g milk chocolate
✔35g of crêpes dentelles

Mix the praline, melted milk chocolate and crêpes dentelles. Spread on the walnut biscuit and put in the freezer.

Walnut cream
✔1 sheet gelatine 2g
✔100 ml cream
✔1 egg yolk
✔15g caster sugar
✔60g of walnut praline

In a bowl, mix the egg yolk with the sugar until slightly white. In a saucepan, bring 100ml of cream to the boil, remove from the heat and pour the hot cream over the previous mixture. Return to the saucepan and cook over a low heat until 82ºC. Remove from the heat and add the wrung-out gelatine. Pour the hot cream over the walnut  praline and mix. Allow to cool, then pour over the crisp and place in the freezer.

Pear mousse
✔2 sheets of gelatine (4g)
✔180g pear puree
✔150g cold liquid cream
✔15g icing sugar

Soften the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water. Heat the pear purée in a saucepan. For the pear puree, you can either use pears in syrup, without adding sugar because they are already sweetened, or you can cook the pears in a syrup (water, sugar, liquid vanilla) and then blend them. Remove from the heat and add the wrung out and softened gelatine, stirring well. Set aside. Whip the cold cream with a mixer, adding the icing sugar. Add the cooled pear puree and pour over the walnut cream (about 265g). Put back in the freezer overnight.

Pear jelly
✔3g gelatine
✔150g pears
✔10g water

Soften the gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water. Heat the pear puree with the water in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and add the wrung out and softened gelatine, stirring well. Allow to cool slightly and pour over the still frozen cake. Place in a cool place.

Serve the cake as a whole or cut out individual slices with a knife, removing 0.5mm from each side beforehand to get well defined slices.

I decorated the cake with caramelised walnuts (melt some powdered sugar in a small pan to make a caramel and dip the walnuts in it, remove them with a fork and place them on a sheet of baking paper to cool), to be placed at the last moment, just before serving.