Capturing that elusive pear flavor

[Edward J]

I have an off/on experieince with pear butter ganache for chocolate bon-bons, and now I've hit a brick wall.

In the beginning....I used a commercial pear flavouring, boosted with pear eau de vie, which worked fairly well. Except I didn't like the ingredient list on the flavouring, and the purveyor stopped carrying it after a few months anyway.

So I tried homemade pear butter (reduced pear puree, a'la apple butter), Williams (pear eau de vie), table butter, and white couverture for my ganache. Flavour was O.K. but the shelf life was terrible, and I wanted to get at least 2 mths with a butter ganache.

Then I tried dried pears, chopped fine and soaked in williams, the theory being that the dried pears would soak up the williams and somehow, sort-of "trap" it. Lousy flavour, and the dried pears (which were fairly white to begin with) oxidized and turned a nasty pink after a week or so--and the williams dissapeared too.

I had a heck-uva time finding non-sulphered dried pears, and then it finally dawned on me to dry my own--picked up a food dehydrator. No treatment of any kind, just peel and slice and dry overnight.

Then, for good measure I tried my hand at candying pears. Dissapointed with the colour, but the flavour is O.K., and I hope the shelf life should be good.

Back to the alchemy, ran the dried pears and the candied through the meat grinder and soaked them with williams overnight. Turned pink again and the flavour was only of Williams--which I am certain will dissapear within a week anyway.

What if.....

I macerated the dried pears with the Williams under vacuum? Put it all in a vacuum bag, suck the air out, and let it soak overnight? Most meat purveyors use the same technique, called "vacuum tumbling" where meat, brine, and flavourings are put in a barrel, air sucked out, and tumbled. The meat picks up all of the surrounding liquid--which is why most supermarket and commercial chicken is sold as "seasoned" (with 17%-25% of soy protien added)....

But I digress.

Anyone have any luck getting the flavour of pears in a chocolate?

[lebowits]

I recommend that you try something like a pear puree. L'Epicerie has some excellent purees [pear williams puree] and the manufacturers typically have standard formulas for ganaches and other uses. I can dig out an example from some material I have later this week if you like.

[Kerry Beal]

The only pear filling I was really happy with was poaching fresh pears sous vide in my slow cooker in port - then made a water ganache using the pears as the liquid with white chocolate. A bit of William for shelf life and flavour. Of course it was pink. You could poach in something white.

[lapin d'or]

I think I would be tempted to roast the pears in butter with a little mild flavoured honey and a squeeze of lemon juice. I don't think they should turn pink if they are acid enough. The drier cooking should help concentrate the flavour but pears don't always have that much flavour to start with.

Lapin

[RWood]

I've made a pear/milk chocolate center that I have had success with. I poach my pears with white wine, vanilla bean, star anise and a few other spices I can't remember right now. I puree that and thin it with a little poaching liquid if need be. I make a butter ganache with the pear puree with a little pear liqueur. I found that I got more pear flavor with the milk chocolate than the dark. I felt it was too delicate of a flavor in dark. Many pear lovers I know really like it.

[Edward J]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll be trying them out