INGREDIENTS
6 pears
500ml mead
300g runny honey
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
strips of lemon peel from 1 lemon
the juice of 1 lemon
For the pastry:
500g butter puff pastry (homemade or shop bought)
a little milk
granulated sugar, for sprinkling
METHOD
1. Place the honey, mead, vanilla, lemon juice and peel in a saucepan (large enough to fit the pears in, but not so wide that they aren’t fully covered by the poaching liquid).
2. Place the saucepan over a gentle heat, stirring until the honey is melted. Then bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer.
3. In the meantime, peel the pears, leaving the stalks on them and slice off a little off the bottom so they can stand up.
4. Place the pears into the poaching syrup and leave simmering, turning occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until soft.
5. Remove the pears using a slotted spoon. Increase the heat so that the syrup becomes reduced. Take off the heat and allow both the pears and poaching syrup to cool.
6. Turn the pears bottom up and use a melon baller or a small knife to remove the core.
7. Preheat your oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
8. Roll the puff pastry out to about the thickness of a pound coin and cut it into long strips, just under 1cm wide.
9. Brush each pear with the cold syrup. Then starting at the base of each pear, wrap the pastry around the pear, slightly overlapping it each time you move up the fruit. Once you’ve used up one strip, brush the end of a new strip with syrup to stick it and continue wrapping the pear.
10. When each pear has been completely wrapped, make leaves out of the leftover pastry and stick them on with more syrup, as if attached to the stalk.
11. Brush your pastry wrapped pears with milk and sprinkle over some granulated sugar.
12. Place the pears on the lined baking sheet and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.
Source : Food Lovers Market
