chocolate pear jam

leonor de sousa bastos has a blog of marvels. after ending one career she began another and became a pâtissière. in april of 2008 she created flagrante delícia to showcase her work with desserts.

i recently saw her post this recipe for chocolate pear jam and knew i had to give it a try. it takes a few days to make (one to cook the basic ingredients and fold in the chocolate, overnight for the flavors to marry and then the next day for the final cooking) and the finished jam is a complex set of flavors: sweet pear (i used some nicely ripe red barletts), slightly bitter chocolate and an undertone of orange. depending on your mix of chocolate, pears and citrus i am sure all these flavors can be pulled and pushed as you desire. her recipe made 7 small mason jars worth for me.

one note: her recipe calls for you to slice the pears thinly. when i was cooking the jam on the second day the pears were still holding their shape. i ended up using a wand blender to pulse them down into a more even texture. i might try dicing the pears next time for a more rustic version.