Lots of pears and apples around it being winter and all, so I got all english at the weekend and made crumble with poached pears. By poaching the fruit the crumble tastes pretty different and less sugary in my opinion, you could poach apples too I guess and I like to mix half poached with half not so you get a different texture and taste.
Poaching liquid
100ml of caster sugar to 200ml of water...use depending on how many pears you poach and should cover all the pears in a big pan
cinnamon stick
2 Star Anise
1 bit of peeled lemon rind
1 Pear per person (best to use harder pears not very ripe ones)
Heat the poaching liquid and spices, lemon rind until the sugar has dissolved. Peel half the pears whole and place in the poaching liquid and cover with a round piece of parchment paper. Bring liquid to a low simmer and they should cook for about 20-30 mins depending on how ripe the pears were at the start. You should be able to stick a knife through. Take them off the heat and let them cool in the liquid.
Chop the poached and unpoached pears into chunks, place the unpoached pears into water if not immediately being put in the oven to prevent browning.
Crumble Mix
serves 4
125g Butter (Cold)
100g Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds
35g Demerara sugar
35g Caster sugar
Handful of porridge Oats
Put the butter, ground almonds and flour in a food processor and pulse a few times till the mix resembles large breadcrumbs. You can also do this my hand rubbing the mix together. Then stir in the sugars and oats. You can make this days in advance, just stick it in the fridge until needed.
To assemble the crumble, put you chopped poached, and raw pear into a big dish or ramekins and pour a little of the poaching liquid over, about half way up dish. Squeeze your crumble to make a ball and place on top and break up to cover the fruit.
Bake in the oven at 200˚C for around 30 mins until the top is nice and golden and fruit bubbling. Best served with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream.
Poaching liquid
100ml of caster sugar to 200ml of water...use depending on how many pears you poach and should cover all the pears in a big pan
cinnamon stick
2 Star Anise
1 bit of peeled lemon rind
1 Pear per person (best to use harder pears not very ripe ones)
Heat the poaching liquid and spices, lemon rind until the sugar has dissolved. Peel half the pears whole and place in the poaching liquid and cover with a round piece of parchment paper. Bring liquid to a low simmer and they should cook for about 20-30 mins depending on how ripe the pears were at the start. You should be able to stick a knife through. Take them off the heat and let them cool in the liquid.
Chop the poached and unpoached pears into chunks, place the unpoached pears into water if not immediately being put in the oven to prevent browning.
Crumble Mix
serves 4
125g Butter (Cold)
100g Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds
35g Demerara sugar
35g Caster sugar
Handful of porridge Oats
Put the butter, ground almonds and flour in a food processor and pulse a few times till the mix resembles large breadcrumbs. You can also do this my hand rubbing the mix together. Then stir in the sugars and oats. You can make this days in advance, just stick it in the fridge until needed.
To assemble the crumble, put you chopped poached, and raw pear into a big dish or ramekins and pour a little of the poaching liquid over, about half way up dish. Squeeze your crumble to make a ball and place on top and break up to cover the fruit.
Bake in the oven at 200˚C for around 30 mins until the top is nice and golden and fruit bubbling. Best served with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream.