I read a recipe using the pear and ginger combination in Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet. I wanted to give it a go and came up with this really simple slice. It’s great with some vanilla custard or ice cream and a cup of Assam. I find the Assam is strong enough to cut through the ginger flavour.
Deliciously simple and perfect way to use up soft pears
You’ll need
- 250g self raising flour
- 225g soft unsalted butter
- 80g soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 80g hazelnuts
- 2/3 soft and ripe pears – I used conference variety
- 2-3 balls of stem ginger – to your taste
- 2-3 tbsp stem ginger syrup
- icing sugar for dusting
- 1 20cm square baking tin
- To make them
- Preheat the oven to 170C
- Grease and line the baking tin and set aside
- Lightly toast the hazelnuts in a frying pan and set aside to cool
- Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy
- Add the vanilla bean paste and mix well
- Mix in the flour until all combined
- Roll the dough into a sausage shape and roughly divide into thirds
- Pop one third into the freezer and press the rest into the base of the lined baking tin aiming for a nice even layer
- Peel and core the pears and then slice them so they are a few mm thick
- Lay them over the pastry base
- Chop the stem ginger finely and scatter over the pears
- Pour over the syrup
- Grate the remaining pastry over the top using a coarse grater
- Chop the toasted hazelnuts and fill in any gaps not covered by the pastry
- Bake for 30-40 minutes. The top should be a lovely golden brown
- leave to cool in the tin, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and then slice as you wish
Easy peasy!