Charlottes are light and melt in the mouth. The sponge biscuits can be soaked quickly in the pear poaching liquor, flavoured with a little dark rum if the dessert is intended for adults.
Ingredients
- 40 sponge fingers
- butter, for greasing
For the poached pears and Chestnut Mousse
- 3 ripe Williams pears
- 500 ml water
- 150 g caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod (opened and scraped)
- 4 small gelatine leaves (6 g)
- 400 g chestnut spread
- 350 ml fresh double cream
For the Chocolate Shavings (Optional)
- 40 g dark chocolate, melted
- 20 g dark chocolate, chopped
How to Make It
- Make the poached pear and sponge fingers. Cool on the tray.
- Grease the mould with butter and line with baking paper.
- For the chestnut mousse, soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 minutes. Put the chestnut cream in a large bowl. Bring 50 ml of cream to the boil and, off the heat, add the squeezed gelatine leaves. Pour the hot cream on top of the chestnut spread and stir with a spatula. Whisk the remaining 300 ml of cream to a soft and runny whipped cream and fold it into the chestnut spread. The chestnut mousse must be soft and runny. Dice 4 poached pear halves and incorporate them to the mousse.
- Line the bottom and the side of the mould with sponge fingers, placing the icing sugar sides in contact with the baking paper.
- Pour in a third of the chestnut mousse and cover it with a layer of sponge fingers. Then add another third of mousse and a layer of sponge fingers. Finally, pour in the remaining mousse and a final layer of sponge fingers. Set in the fridge for a minimum of 6 hours.
- Turn the mould upside down on a serving tray and help the charlotte to slide out by pulling gently on the baking paper.
- Decorate the charlotte with sliced poached pears and chocolate shavings.