Vol-au-vents with pear and chocolate

Ingredients

Puff pastry 450 g

Pears 2

Sugar 2 tbsp

Butter 2 tbsp

Water 1 tbsp

Pear liqueur

Chocolate

Egg 1

Peel, core, and chop the pears. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugar and pears. Add water if necessary to prevent the syrup from burning. Stir for a minute, then add the pear liqueur and stir again.

Roll out the puff pastry to a medium thickness (not thin). Cut out circles of dough in pairs, one for the bottom and the other for the sides of the vol-au-vent (cut out the middle to create a "ring").

 You can prick the whole circles with a fork in the middle so that only the edges rise. Brush the edges of the whole circles with beaten egg and attach the "rings" to them. Brush the vol-au-vents again with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 200-220 degrees Celsius until done. Then fill them with pears and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

What to do with the dough scraps? They're unlikely to make neat vol-au-vents, so it's better to make puff pastry sticks with herbs. You'll need dried basil or oregano, sea salt, and pepper. Then it's a matter of technique: gather the scraps, sprinkle them with the aforementioned mixture, roll them up however you like, and bake. :)

Enjoy!