Caramel pear Tatins
The beauty of this is you can make it all ahead up until it goes in the oven, so the tricksy stuff is done before guests arrive
Difficulty and servings
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking times
Ready in 1 hour 30 mins, plus cooling time
- To make the caramel put the sugar in 1 large or 2 smaller ovenproof frying pans (you're going to need enough space to fit 6 pear halves in, cut-side down) then put on a medium heat. The sugar will eventually start to melt and at this point you can shake the pan a little bit to help it along. Now be brave here; you want the caramel to go pretty dark so you get a more 'grown-up' flavour, so let it keep cooking. When it reaches a conker-brown, drop in a knob of butter and a splash of water to help it stop cooking and whisk together. Leave the caramel to cool in the pan then put it in the fridge to set.
- This method for rolling the pastry is a bit different from how you'd normally use puff. At Claridge's we use the offcuts for this as they've been rolled out several times and had a lot of the air knocked out of them so we end up with a really crisp buttery pastry that stays the shape we want it. But as you are starting from scratch, the best way to do this is to sprinkle the puff with a little flour and then roll it out much thinner than you normally would. This will give you a bit more control over the finished shape.
- If you have time, it's good to leave the peeled pears for an hour or so to dry a bit so the pastry can stick better (or even peel them the day before and leave in the fridge to dry out). Push a whole star anise into the cavity left by the core. Put the pears cut-side down on the pastry and cut around them, leaving a large border. Now turn the pears over and mould the pastry around them, leaving the cut-side bare. If you like, you can push a bit of vanilla pod in the top of the pear to mimic the stalk. When all the pears are covered, put them cut-side down on the caramel in the pan. These can now be kept in the fridge until you want to cook them.
- Mix the cream cheese with 2 tbsp or so of icing sugar to sweeten it. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the pan with the pears in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden and the caramel is bubbling. Take out of the oven and carefully lift the pears out of the caramel and turn them over onto serving plates (use a palette knife and be careful as it will be very hot). Serve 1 per person with the sweetened cream cheese drizzled with a little caramel.
710 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 95.3g, fat 36.5 g, saturated fat 18.5g, fibre 1.5g, salt 0.94 g
Recipe from olive magazine, November 2007.
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Ingredients
- 300g caster sugar
- butter
- 500g puff pastry block
- 3 pears , peeled, halved and cored
- 6 whole star anise
- 1 vanilla pod , cut into short lengths (optional)
- 200g cream cheese
- icing sugar
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Difficulty and servings
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking times
Ready in 1 hour 30 mins, plus cooling time
Ingredients
- 300g caster sugar
- butter
- 500g puff pastry block
- 3 pears , peeled, halved and cored
- 6 whole star anise
- 1 vanilla pod , cut into short lengths (optional)
- 200g cream cheese
- icing sugar
710 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 95.3g, fat 36.5 g, saturated fat 18.5g, fibre 1.5g, salt 0.94 g
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20 November 2010
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