Pear and Raspberry Crumble

Hello and a happy sunday!

I have bought some pears last week and they seemed to have ripened overnight. So what to do??? One of my favorite combinations is pears and raspberries, and since I always have some of those sitting in the freezer, I thought a crumble it is. It is also a good opportunity to use up some white chocolate I have had in my storing cupboard since I made these white chocolate cookies.
I can't give exact measurements on this crumble, as I kind of make it just with rough judging.

I still try my best and tell you what I used:

For the crumble mixture:

• 2 tbsp of ground almonds
• 2 tbsp of oats (I used my porridge oats)
• 2 heaped tbsp of flour
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• roughly 100 g cold cubed butter
• pinch of salt

For the fruits:

• 3 ripe but not over pears
• a large handful of frozen raspberries
• 20 g grated white chocolate
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• optional: 1 tbsp caster sugar

And how to make it:

• first heat the oven to 175 °C (no fan)
• then make the crumble mixture: mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl together
• then, with you hands, rub the diced cold butter in there until you get a crumbly texture
• if too dry, add more butter, if too wet, add more flour
• then onto the fruit: peel and core the pears and cut into small pieces
• in a bowl mix with the lemon juice and the flour
• if your pears are rather sour, you can add some sugar here, I prefer however not to do that
• fill your pear mixture into the bottom of an oven proof dish
• top with a layer of frozen raspberries, then sprinkle with white chocolate (any chocolate will do)
• now evenly distribute your crumble mix, make sure to cover the fruit to the rim of the dish
• put in the oven and bake for 45 mins or until the top is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling
• and now serve up straight from the oven
• add some cream, ice cream, or vanilla sauce

I have mine pure as it is and I have to hold back not to finish the whole dish at once :-)

Have a lovely week everybody!

Pear-Granita

Hi everyone,

I know, it has been ages since I last posted a recipe. I had a lot of stuff going on in my life including moving back to Berlin. This post here was long overdue since I first made the pear-granita way back in spring.
Anyways, this is what you need:

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe pears
• 1 cinnamon stick
• juice of 1 organic lemon + peel
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups water

And this is how you do it:

• cut the pears in chunks
• boil the water with the sugar until fully dissolved, then add pears, cinnamon and lemon juice and peel
• simmer for at least 30 mins on low heat with lid on
• then let cool, strain through a sieves, squeezing out all the juices from the pear
• place in a plastic container and freeze overnight
• once frozen solid, take a fork and scratch the ice off, it will look a little bit like snow with bigger flakes in it
• serve directly

If you want, you can also add some liquor, however, the granita will not freeze as good as without. Very refreshing in the heat, nice palate refresher after dinner.

Quick Pear & Blue Cheese Tarte

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as I did and your start into 2012 was fabulous. I certainly had (actually still have) a very relaxing break and now I am looking forward to going back to work (yes, really!)

As first post for the new year, I chose this very quick, adaptable and yummy recipe using ready-made puff pastry.




Ingredients:

• puff pastry (1 pack or as much as you like)
• 1 small or half a large pear (preferably a bit sour and with crunch, not too sweet)
• blue cheese to your liking (I used a creamy gorgonzola but I guess almost every blue cheese would do)
• soured cream
• roughly chopped walnuts
• parsley, pepper

How to make it:

• roll out the puff pastry, 1 cm from the edges, cut lines parallel to the edges with a sharp knife, but don't pierce the dough (this will give you slighty higher risen edges of your tarte, so the filling won't escape)
• cover the inner box with soured cream (generous portion), add the sliced pears, sprinkle the walnuts and crumble blue cheese over
• make sure the rim is still dry, otherwise it won't rise
• bake in a preaheat oven at 150 °C (no fan) for roughly 15-20 mins (but this depends on the cheese you use!)
• sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper

That's it. You might also want to try different toppings, some of my favorites are figs and parma ham, smoked salmon and spring onions or chickenbreast and black olives.