February 17, 2004
Crumble Poire et Marron Confit
This is the very quick and yummy dessert I served our friends the other night, just before we got back to our scheduled program of activities - video games for Maxence and Marwane, and some serious chatting for Marion and myself.
This is in fact a cheater's crumble, in which the fruit is cooked beforehand (in my case a large amount of delicious passe-crassane pears that had gotten nice and ripe all at the same time), and the crumble is a handful of your favorite granola cereal (I am an enthusiastic cereal buyer, and we have about 12 different kinds, among which 5 are granolas, and um... one is for Maxence).
The idea of adding marrons confits (a.k.a. marrons glacés or glazed chestnuts) to the pears was inspired by the delicious crumble they currently serve at l'Avant-Goût, to which I went back on a couple of happy occasions recently.
Unrelated yet joyous note : a very Happy Birthday to Nassim and Alex!
Crumble Poire et Marron Confit
- 6 ripe juicy pears
- 4 marrons confits (glazed chestnuts)
- 3/4 C granola cereal
(Serves 4.)
Pear compote. Peel, core and cut the pears into medium chunks. Put them in a saucepan, and cook over medium heat, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring gently every once in a while. They are done when they are translucent, but you don't want them to melt completely, some chunks should remain. Most pears are sweet enough that you don't need to add sugar to them, but if you feel like yours aren't very sweet, add a teaspoon or two of sugar at the beginning of the cooking.
The pear compote can be prepared ahead, and kept in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of days.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). In each of four shallow ramequins, spoon a fourth of the pear compote. Add one chopped marron glacé, and top with a fourth of the granola. Put the ramequins into the oven for about 10 minutes, or until warm. Serve as is, or top with a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream or crème fraîche.
 Chestnut Pecan Biscotti |
 Aged Gouda and Dried Pear Scones |
 Dried Pears |
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This sounds divine! and too easy!!
I am a cereal addict too(!) and have been missing that bulk granola from my California days. I look forward to hearing where you get your granola from here in Paris.
je montre régulièrement tes jolies photos à Frédérique, ma voisine de bureau, qui me dit à chaque fois: "mais c'est vraiment elle qui fait ça?"
;-)
Thanks about the blog. Hopefully people start to find it.
That confit looks devine. Maybe I will surprise my partner with it in the next couple of days.
We often do a similar yet different fruit crisp. Very simple but always good. Mostly whenever fruits are in season, but right now with cherries, blueberries and peaches we put up.
My mouth is watering!
Donna and Karen - This is indeed very nice and easy!
Amy - Aaah yes, the bulk granola aisle at Whole Foods, those were the days! :) Here I like the Quaker Cruesli cereals, and have reasonable success with organic food stores, who carry interesting flavors. There's also Rose Bakery (review in the "Restaurant Scene" category) in the rue des Martyrs, who makes and sells their own. It's delicious.
Laurence - Je suis ravie! :)
John - Where do you live to have blueberries and peaches and cherries in season right now? And can I join you? :)
Merci Clo t'es super!
Bon anniversaire à Alex et à moi-même :)
bisous++
Nassim
Cherries and blueberries etc are in season in Melbourne Aust (therefore, Southern hemisphere) right now! In fact, my fingers are sticky from cherry juice as I type. Yum! :-)
Sorry, those blueberries and such are what we have stored up, not fresh. Enough to tide up over until the good stuff is back. You are still welcome though. There is virtually always fresh home roasted coffee and home made chocolate available.
BTW, in regard to your Crumble Poire et Marron Confit, do you know how I would make the glazed chestnuts?
Nassim - C'était bien le moins que je puisse faire! :)
Niki - Aaaah cherries, I can't wait!
John - Basically, glazed chestnuts are chestnuts cooked in sugar and water and flavored with vanilla. I found a recipe on http://touslesdesserts.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=96 : it's in French, but if you don't understand what it says I can translate it for you!
Yes, thank you. A translation would be great. I never got the hang of french. Latin I can (or used to) do a reasonable job of, just not any current other languages.
John - Here's a translation of the recipe. I haven't tried it (or any other one) so I don't vouch for it, but it looks good to me. Do let me know if you try it!
Glazed Chestnuts
500 g chestnuts
750 g water
750 g sugar
half a vanilla bean
- Cut a slit in the chestnuts and put them in salted boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Remove all the layers of skin and rince under cold water.
- Cook for 20 minutes in the basket of a pressure cooker.
- Make a syrup by boiling together the water, sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes.
- Put the basket in with the chestnuts for one minute.
- Turn off the heat, and let the syrup cool down, covered, in a cool place (but not in the fridge).
- The next day, remove the basket with the chestnuts. Bring the syrup to a boil and keep it boiling for 4 minutes. Put the basket in with the chestnuts, and let it cool the same way.
- Repeat the next day, and the day after that (four times total).
- Put the glazed chestnuts to dry in the oven at 150°C (300°F) for 15 minutes.
- Keep the chestnuts in an airtight container.
Hi, Clotilde!
"One" question :)
Is there any difference in between glazed chestnuts and candied chestnuts? Are both of them 'marrons glaces'? And what about the 'marron confit'? Are they all the same?
Many thanks!