One of my favorite things my mom would make for me when I was sick is pears steamed with ginger and honey. The juicy steamed pears would be fork-tender, while being aromatic with both the fragrant honey and the warming slices of ginger. I still remember when I had COVID(not fun times at all), and my mom gave me those pears(using responsible social distancing, of course) and eating them made me feel slightly better. I say slightly because I am NOT trying to promote honey and ginger-steamed pears as a COVID cure. They are not a COVID cure, they just happened to help me clear my disgusting, germ-ridden sinuses. I needed to get that out of the way first and foremost before someone tries to cancel me for giving incorrect medical advice. Anyways, this entremet(French mousse cake) is my homage to my mother’s kindness and thoughtfulness and was also directly conceived from the fact my mom just gifted me with fresh anjou pears that I needed to use(yes, I am aware this is a very full-circle situation). Fun fact, we actually used to call ripe anjou pears “mushy pears” growing up, because of how soft-textured they would get. Personally, I love honey, ginger, and pears, together or not, because of how warming all three ingredients are. Pear desserts are so popular in the fall and winter, while I relate ginger and honey to the holidays as well, since they are such common ingredients in that time of year. I really wanted to do something festive with the pears, while capturing this sort of festive, golden-colored aesthetic. So a lot of what I wanted to focus on in this dessert was the color gold. Golden-brown components are fairly easy to accomplish with honey and ginger, while the pears, it was just a no-brainer to caramelize them in the honey. So this entire dessert came together around the idea of caramelizing honey, and what we could do with that!

For the components, we have honey-candied pear chips, a ginger-honey chiffon cake, a burnt honey mousse, and honey-caramelized pear disks. The honey-candied pear chips, which gorgeously adorn the top of my cake, are a labor of patience. You have to slowly dehydrate these pear slices, after macerating them in honey syrup, until they are completely dried out. They take on this ethereal appearance that really lifts the presentation of the cake itself. With the components of the mousse cake, the honey-caramelized pear disks take the longest. You have to first almost-burn honey, and to that, you add in butter, spices, and the pears, cooking that all together just to bring out the liquid in the pears themselves. After that, agar and water are added, which will help set the pear mixture into disks of caramelized pear gelee, and then these are frozen solid. It is highly important that you freeze the disks solid, or else when you assemble this cake, the caramelized pear disk that sits at the top of the cake will not look clean and flat. The cake sponge that is used is made with regular-temperature honey, turned into a chiffon cake, and soaked with a spiced honey milk so that it does not taste dry. The body of the entremet is made with a burnt honey mousse, which can be made 100% easier if you use a thermometer(that way, you can tell when the honey is heated up to 300 degrees F before you start adding the other ingredients). The mousse requires a lot of temperature balancing, since the base starts with 300-degree F honey, which needs to be tempered down so that the egg yolks don’t scramble, the gelatin dissolves into it properly, and the heavy cream, when folded in, does not just deflate from the heat of the mixture. Patience is key with this entire dessert, but the end result is a delicate mousse cake that is light as a cloud, and tastes of a Taiwanese mother’s love.

For the honey-candied pear chips:
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp honey
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground ginger
1 relatively unripe anjou pear
cooking spray

In a pot, bring water, honey, salt, and ginger to a boil. Using a mandolin on the thinnest setting, shave the pear into slices, lengthwise. Take the pot with the honey water off heat and let the pear slices sit in the liquid for 10 minutes. Pat the slices dry and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and cooking spray. Place another piece of parchment on top and weigh down the top with another tray. Bake at 200 degrees F for 10 minutes first. Then remove the top tray and parchment. Return the tray with the pear slices back to the oven for another 2 hours, still at 200 degrees F. Allow the slices to cool down before transferring to an airtight container.

For the ginger-burnt honey-pear disks:
1oz honey
1 tbsp unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground ginger
2 anjou pears, peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp agar agar

In a pot, heat up the honey until it begins to boil, then caramelize(it should take on an even darker brown color, but not yet blackened). Add in the butter, salt, ginger, and pears to that first, then while gently stirring, add in the water and agar. Allow the liquid in the pot to cook down by about half, and then distribute the mixture evenly between two 5-inch ring molds that have been lined with cling wrap and cooking spray and that have been placed on a transferrable surface. Place the filled molds into the freezer, keeping the disks there until they are completely frozen solid for optimal assembly.

For the ginger-honey chiffon cake:
2 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1.5oz honey
a pinch of ground ginger
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1oz brown butter

In a bowl, whip the egg whites with honey, ginger, and salt until stiff peaks form. To the egg yolk, sift in the flour and brown butter first, making sure not to stir the flour just quite yet. Then fold the whipped egg whites into that mixture to form your batter. Spread the batter on a lined quarter sheet tray in a thin, even layer. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Cut out two thin 5-inch rounds out of the baked cake.

For the honey-ginger soak:
1/4 cup milk, warmed
1 tbsp honey
1g ground ginger
a pinch of salt

In a bowl or cup, stir everything together until the honey is dissolved into the milk. Refrigerate until chilled down.

For the burnt honey mousse:
2oz honey
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks and kept cold

In a pot, heat up the honey until it comes up to a boil, and then simmers down on its own and begins to darken. Once the honey is almost brown in color(it should reach about 300 degrees F), add in the milk first. Then while stirring gently, add in the gelatin and salt, allowing both to dissolve with the milk into the honey. Pour half of the honey milk over your egg yolks while whisking the egg yolks, and then pour the egg yolks back into the pot containing the honey milk, whisking the contents of the pot vigorously over medium heat as you do so. Once the mixture begins warm up, pass it through a sieve to remove any lumps, and allow that to sit at room temperature until it is cooled down. Mix into that the vanilla first, then fold in the whipped cream to form your mousse.

For assembly:
Start by lining a 6-inch ring mold with cling wrap and cooking spray. Place the ring mold onto a sheet tray that can fit into your freezer(I even prefer to place a silpat underneath the ring mold just to be safe). Lay down one of the frozen pear disks(flatter side down) first and pour into that a third of the mousse. Brush half of the soak onto one of the disks of cake and press that in next. Add in another third of the mousse, then another disk of pear. Then repeat the steps of adding the mousse, soaking the cake, and adding in the cake. Tap the tray to help remove any air bubbles, and then freeze the mousse cake for 4 hours before attempting to unmold. Garnish the top with the pear chips to finish.