Pear & Apple Pastry with Madagascar Vanilla Custard

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:

1. Wash and peel 3 apples & 3 pears
2. Cut them into any kind of little shapes & plonk into a saucepan
3. Add 3tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice & 2 tbsp of water
4. 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!
5. With the remaining pear & apple cut in half & then cut that half into a further half
6. 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!)
7. Get a little bowl & fill with water 7 then place in a wedge of lemon to stop colouring
8. Get a pastry dish and line the entire inside with butter coating to ensure the pastry does not stick
9. 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
10. Leave this in the fridge until ready to use
11. When you can with ease put a knife through the biggest piece of fruit you know its ready
12. Take the chilled pastry from the fridge & simply fill with all the stewed fruit
13. Take your thinly slices of apple and fan them close to each other around the inside edges
14. 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!
15. When the tart is nearly done scatter over 1 handful of flaky almonds to give it a lovely nutty taste
16. Place into the oven at 180 degrees C for about 25 - 30 minutes or until lovely & golden
17. 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!

1.  Separate 3 eggs - we need the 3 yolks
2. Add your 2 tbsp of brown sugar and whisk together
3. On a low heat pour in 1 L of whole fat milk and warm it through, stirring constantly
4. Run a sharp knife down through the middle of the 2 Madagascar vanilla pods, splitting them open
5. 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
6. 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)
7. Give it a good whisk then put it back on a low heat giving it a whisk here & there to give it some air
8. When it can coat the back of a spoon you know its done
18. 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!

I think this little miss could be a show stopper & leave anybody feeling warm inside so enjoy folks!

Bella :)