Poached Pear Pastry Tarts with Mascarpone Cream

These Poached Pear Pastry Tarts with Mascarpone Cream and Honey drizzle are a great last minute appetizer, dessert or snack. They’re quick to make and assemble, super easy, and most importantly they’re delicious and require just a few ingredients that you already may have on hand! Puff pastry, with Pears poached in sweet vanilla cinnamon liquid and baked together to create the perfect mini-tarts. Finish each tart off with mascarpone cream and a drizzle of honey for the perfect combination.

Trust me, you’ll be making these more than once!

How To Poach Pears:

Before I talk about How to make these Pastry Tarts, lets first talk about how to poach a pear. Its quite simple as long as you understand the method and which pears to use.

Let’s talk about which pears you should/could/want to use for poaching, I poached three different kinds and to be quite honest, they all tasted amazing but you need to choose a ripe and firm pear of a variety that holds its shape well during cooking and baking. I used the three that I mention below and all held up very well during poaching. Some people might disagree but this is where YOU have to experiment and see which you like best.

Bartlett:

Bartlett variety comes in two colors: green and red.
Bartlett pears are traditionally used for canning.
can bruise easily if not handled delicately

Bosc:

Bosc pears are crisp and mildly sweet
They have a firm, dense flesh than other pear varieties, so they are ideal for use in baking, broiling or poaching.

Anjou:

Juicy pear that comes in red and green varieties.
Anjou pears are firm in texture, making them very versatile.

You can also choose whichever pears you like BUT they have to be firm and not overly ripe.

What Goes Into the Poaching Liquid?

I have poached Pears in red wine, white wine or a simple vanilla syrup. For this particular recipe, I went with Vanilla, a Cinnamon stick, sugar, honey, orange peel, Star Anise and of course Water but again You can poach pears in any flavourful liquid that you choose. If you decide to use Red wine, It will give the pears and beautiful red color!

Base: wine (red or white), water OR a fruit Juice
To sweeten: Brown or cane sugar, honey, agave, maple syrup, whatever sweetener you like
Spices: Get creative here, you can use cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, star anise, ginger, Vanilla bean or vanilla extract, Lemon peel, orange peel, or even the pear peels themselves.

How To make Poached Pears:

Prep: Wash and Peel the Pears and cut them in half or quarter.
Combine ingredients. Add water, sugar, honey, cinnamon stick, star anise, Orange Peel and vanilla bean or extract.
Cook:Bring the ingredients to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Once the liquid is simmering, add the pears, Simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the pears are tender and the liquid is thickened, like syrup.

Make sure you prepare enough poaching liquid to fully immerse the pears. If the pears don't have enough liquid, you will have to keep turning the fruit every 5 to 10 minutes to ensure they poach evenly on all sides. You can fit a sheet of parchment over the simmering pears to hold in the heat and moisture, and to ensure they cook more evenly (Thanks, David Lebovitz!) You know they are done when you pierce them with the tip of a knife, and feel no resistance whatsoever.

I got a little knife crazy and accidentally sliced the pear, whoops!

On to the rest of the Ingredients:

The Puff Pastry sheets are store bought, You can also use pie dough but it won’t give that same flake and airy texture that the puff pastry does.
Mascarpone cream may sound a little fancy but its very easy… All you need is mascarpone, vanilla extract and honey :) that is all. Mix these together and voila!
The Egg Wash to give the pastries that beautiful golden color ( do not forget the egg wash!) ohhh and sprinkle sugar on top of the egg wash!
Honey Drizzle, just to add the cherry on top

How to assemble and cook the Pastries:

After the Pears have been Poached, its time to assemble the patries.

Start out by cutting each sheet of pastry into rectangles and spread with the poaching syrup along with mascarpone, Add the poached pear in the middle, fold the pastry sheets inward and do an egg wash all over, sprinkle with sugar and place them in the oven, for about 15 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden (remember the pear is already cooked so you only need to cook the puff pastry.

Then finish with honey, mascarpone cream and more of the poaching liquid.

Quick, easy, perfect, and SO GOOD!

If you make this recipe , be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I love to hear from you guys and of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!