Recipe: Strawberry tiramisu with ginger-caramelised pears

Ingregients

 

Twelve strawberries - sliced
Two pears - quartered
One inch of root ginger – peeled and chopped

One vanilla pod – chopped small
One dessertspoon of brown sugar

Sponge pieces – enough to make 8 ½“ thick discs
One tablespoon of brandy
Two tablespoon of Mascapone cheese sweetened with a little caster sugar to taste.
Few leaves of fresh mint

Method

Pre-heat the grill. In a bowl, coat the pears with the ginger, vanilla pod and brown sugar. Grill them for around 10 minutes, turning now and again. Pour the resulting juice into a jug or bowl and reserve.

 

Sprinkle all the brandy over the sponge discs and then build your desserts by building layers of sponge, mascapone and strawberries ending up with four layers. Using a pastry cutter ring might help but this dish looks great presented as high as possible. 

Garnish each dish with the pears and fresh mint and pour the reserved juice over and around

Recipe: Pear and Almond Frangipane

Ingredients

For the pastry
100g Butter
Two eggs
two drops of Vanilla extract
175g Sifted plain flour

For the frangipan
200g unsalted butter
200g sugar
Four eggs
100g ground almonds
50g plain flour
One pear-peeled, halved lenghways

Method

For the pastry
Pre-heat the oven to 150c
ina mixing bowl, cream the butter with the eggs until smooth. Gently fold in the flour and vanilla extract. Wrap in cling film and rest for 45 minutes. Roll out and line an eight-inchpastry ring or flan dish. To bake blind, cover the pastry on th bottom and sides of the flan with foiland wieght down with a handful of dried beans or pasta and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, remove from the oven, lift of the foil and allow to cool.

For the frangipan
pre-heat the oven to 180c
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar , then beat in the eggs individually using a metal spoon, gently fold in the ground almonds followed by the flour

Half fill the pastry case with the mix and fan the pear slices on top. Then fill the pastry case with the remaining mix. place in the oven and bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean- about 20-25 minutes

Serve with Mascarpone and fresh berries

Recipe: Mille-Feuille of Iced Pear Parfait, Warm Poached Pear, Liquorice and Caramel Shot

For the parfait
300g caster sugar
63ml cold water
300g whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 ltr whipping cream
500g pear puree

Method
Mix the water and sugar together and boil. heat to 120c.
Mix the egg yolksand eggs together and whip.
Whisk the sugar in to the egg to make a sabayon.
Allow to cool.
Whip the cream.
Fold the egg, puree and cream together.
Freeze in moulds until required

For the pears
4 pears
1 ltr water
375g sugar
2 lemons

Method
Put the water, sugar and lemons in to a pan and bring to the boil
Peel the pears and add to the poaching liquid
Poach the pears until they are just cooked, remove from stock and allow to cool

For the filo
4 sheets of filo pastry
2 egg yolks

Method
Cut out 24 discs,
Coat 12 of the the discs with egg and top with the other discs, bake until golden brown

For the latte
200g sugar
200ml double cream
100ml water
2 leaves gelatine
4 liquorice straws

Method
put the sugar in the pan with 20ml water
Cook until golden
Remove from the heat and add the rest of the water
Add the gelatine, pour into a shot glass and chill

To serve
Layer the parfait and pastry to build the mille feuille. Put the poached pear and the latte onto the service dish. Pour the cream on top of the latte and add the liquorice straws

Recipe: Mulled Wine Poached Pear

Recipe

250ml mulled wine
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange zest
Juice of 1 orange
4 peeled pears

Method

Pour all of the ingredients into a pan and stir, bring to the boil
Add the pears to the stock and poach them for 25 minutes
Remove the pears and reduce the stock by half.

Serve the pears with the stock and add vanilla mascarpone or ice cream.