Pears & apples are a match made in heaven! Their different types of sweetness really compliment each other. Also, I think everyone knows just how well a good custard goes with any kind of sweet pastry! So lets get all of these 3 together and make a lush dessert!Ingredients
Pastry
1 pack of ready made flaky pastry
4 apples - 1 for decoration
4 pears - 1 for decoration
3 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp of water
2 little cubes of butter for buttering the dish
1 handful of flaked almonds
Madagascar Vanilla Custard
3 egg yolks
1 L of whole milk
2 Madagascar vanilla pods
2 tbsp of brown sugar
Tip: Nowadays you can easily get a good ready made pastry in any decent shop near you. It comes in the form of a dough rolled and wrapped around some parchment paper. Its simple and takes a good hour off your cooking time!
Method:
- Wash and peel 3 apples & 3 pears
- Cut them into any kind of little shapes & plonk into a saucepan
- Add 3tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice & 2 tbsp of water
- Give it a good stir & leave on a low heat until soft - every so often come back to it and stir gently as to not smash the fruit into smithereens!
- With the remaining pear & apple cut in half & then cut that half into a further half
- Try and cut thin slices of each fruit which will be our overall amazing topping (ideally if you have a mandolin it would be a treat if not just practise your thing Japanese knife skills!)
- Get a little bowl & fill with water 7 then place in a wedge of lemon to stop colouring
- Get a pastry dish and line the entire inside with butter coating to ensure the pastry does not stick
- Simply open the packaged pastry & roll over the pastry dish, with your fingers just move around the inside edges of the pastry dish to allow for an even place for the fruit to sit
- Leave this in the fridge until ready to use
- When you can with ease put a knife through the biggest piece of fruit you know its ready
- Take the chilled pastry from the fridge & simply fill with all the stewed fruit
- Take your thinly slices of apple and fan them close to each other around the inside edges
- With the thinly sliced pear fan them on the inside of the dish - long parts of the pear facing towards the inside of the pastry dish - This makes it look amazing & people can really see that its a pear & apple treat!
- When the tart is nearly done scatter over 1 handful of flaky almonds to give it a lovely nutty taste
- Place into the oven at 180 degrees C for about 25 - 30 minutes or until lovely & golden
- Lets talk custard -It's was my first time to make it homemade and it was actually easy! I took a chance at this recipe as I didn't have any access to the Internet and it actually worked out pretty good!
- Separate 3 eggs - we need the 3 yolks
- Add your 2 tbsp of brown sugar and whisk together
- On a low heat pour in 1 L of whole fat milk and warm it through, stirring constantly
- Run a sharp knife down through the middle of the 2 Madagascar vanilla pods, splitting them open
- Run the back of the knife down all 4 sides stealing all those beautiful vanilla grain - add these sticky goodness to the milk and whisk until you see specks of vanilla dispersed throughout the milk
- With the warmed milk slowly add a little to the eggs yolk & brown sugar mix whisking vigorously in the process (don't add it all at the same time as you will get scrambled eggs)
- Give it a good whisk then put it back on a low heat giving it a whisk here & there to give it some air
- When it can coat the back of a spoon you know its done
- The tart should be done at this stage - on a shallow bowl pour in a good lug of the Madagascar custard then place neatly a nice slice of the pear & apple tart on top!
Bella :)
