Ingredients
- Pastry
- 110g plain flour
- 30g icing sugar
- 30g caster sugar
- 50g butter
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp pouring cream
- Pastry cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- 1/2 cup cream, whipped
- Campari-poached pears
- 4 beurre bosc pears, peeled
- 75mL orange juice
- 75mL lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 vanilla bean, split
- 200g muscovado sugar
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 200mL Campari
- 750mL grenadine
- Muscovado sugar, extra
Method
Pastry
Preheat oven to 180C.Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butter and mix until combined, running mixture through your fingers until it's the texture of breadcrumbs, then add yolk and cream and mix until smooth. Knead into a disc and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll pastry out on a floured surface until 2mm thick. Cut rectangles 10cm x 5cm and bake on a lightly greased oven tray for 8-10 minutes or until golden and cooked. Cool on a cake rack.
Pastry cream
Scald milk and vanilla in a small pan. In a bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar and cornflour until smooth. Gradually add milk mixture and whisk until smooth. Return to rinsed-out saucepan and stir over low heat until mixture has thickened, is smooth and has come to the boil. Remove vanilla, cover and refrigerate. When cool, stir in cream.
Campari-poached pears
Peel, halve and core pears. Combine remaining ingredients in a pan (except extra sugar) and bring to boil. Add pears and simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Remove pears and cool. Boil liquid over medium heat until reduced and syrupy. Remove and cool.
To serve, cut a slice off cheeks of pears so halves sit flat. Sprinkle with extra sugar and place under a hot grill until caramelised. Place pastry on serving plates and spoon over pastry cream. Top with two pear halves and drizzle with reduced syrup.
