Its been a while since my last post. I have been back to Singapore for a short 2 week holiday just to visit family and friends. It was durian season in Singapore at the moment and the streets were filled with this aromatic/pungent, spikey fruit. Its been years since I have had durian and so I had it everyday while I was there – I HEART Durians. Some people reckon it smells of body ordour and tastes like smelly feet but because I grew up in a family that thinks durian is just about the best thing God has placed on this earth, I can’t really correlate with the whole smelly feet/ body ordour thing.
Anyway, after 2 weeks of lovely warm weather and eating copious amount of durians and other fantastic Singaporean local food, I return to the bitter Melbourne cold. Its been harder and harder coming back to this city which I now call home. I made this hazelnut and pear torte to cheer myself up a little. Its winter here and pears are in season. I found this recipe in last month’s delicious magazine and added a few touches to it. It turned out to be really good. It was really easy but I reckon it would have tasted better with a sweet paste crust. This is nice though if you want to whip up a quick, easy dessert
Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients for poached pears:
- 300 ml white wine
- 400 ml water
- zest from 1 orange
- beans from 1 vanilla pod
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 2 pears
Ingredients for the torte:
- 100 grams hazelnut meal
- 110 grams caster sugar
- 50 grams plain flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 60 ml full cream milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 80 grams unsalted butter (melted and then cooled)
- 20 grams chopped butter
- 2 ripe pears
- Boiled apricot jam to glaze
Method:
- Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius.
- Grease a 26 cm loose bottomed tart pan.
- Peel and core the pears and cut them into wedges.
- Pace the rest of the ingredients for poached pears in a saucepan and boil the pears till they are a little tender.
- Place the hazelnut meal in a large bowl and sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the nut mixture and toss together with your fingers.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs till frothy and then whisk in the milk, vanilla and melted butter.
- Combine the egg mixture and the nut mixture and stir together until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the tart pan.
- Place the poached pear wedges on top of the tart and press them down gently.
- Sprinkle a little sugar on top of the pears and place bits of the chopped butter on top of them.
- Bake the torte in the oven for 25 to 30 min.
- Transfer to a wire and brush the boiled apricot jam over the top of the tart.
- Serve with cream.
