Pear and Almond Dessert

Dropped in to collect some fruit from one of our local growers yesterday, Magarey Orchards. I picked up some lovely plums, exceptionally sweet and perfect for making jam. Once I started to cut them up I was quite overcome by their amazing colour and fragrance.

Also, there were some good looking apples and pears which I had in mind for chutney or pickle. But then my daughter and I spent a few hours making Plum Leather and dried plums. And I also made a batch of Plum and Cinnamon Jam, so I was all out of puff and decided to put chutney on hold.

I decided instead to settle on this lovely pear dessert. It has a nice gingery sauce on the bottom with a fruity cake topping - how can you resist this?

There is something really nice and flavoursome about this dessert and I have often cooked it in winter but today I am wondering if it might be an interesting dessert to eat cold - something I have never tried.

I  also whipped up some Spiced Pear Muffins, and I will include this recipe in my very  next post. Keep a look out later in the week!

Pear and Almond Dessert

Ingredients

Topping

11/4 cup S R Flour

180g butter

2/3 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds)

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup flaked almonds

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 large ears, peeled and sliced thickly

Sauce

2 tablespoons caster sugar

30g butter

2 teaspoon powdered ginger

2 tablespoon custard powder

11/4 cup milk

Make the sauce first. 

In a small saucepan, mix caster sugar, ginger and custard powder with a little of the milk to form a smooth paste. Add the rest of the mix and on a low heat, heat until the custard thickens. Beat in the butter and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs, one at a time and mix in thoroughly. add vanilla essence.

In a separate bowl, add flour, caster sugar, and almond meal. Mix the wet mixture into the flour and continue to mix until the flour is completely incorporated.

In a greased oven proof container, around 8 cup size,  spread custard sauce. Then add the pears in a single layer. Spoon over the 'cake' mixture and spread evenly over the custard. Take the flaked almonds and sprinkle generously all over the topping.

Cook in a preheated  moderate oven 180 º for approximately 1 hour until the top is nicely browned. Using a skewer, insert into the middle of the cake mixture and if it comes out cleanly, then dessert is ready. 

Serves 6 people