Apple and Pear Crumble

Too many apples, too many pears. Not much time to make a much more elaborate dessert, so it was time to whip up some crumble. Instead of making a large dish this time, however, I made 3 large individual serves.

First, I diced apples (yellow) and pears (green) separately, mixed with some lime juice and zest, and a small amount of sugar. Then I filled each dish halfway with apples, and filled the remaining half with pear. This made for a very nice difference in color before adding the crumble mix.

Then I covered the whole dish with a crumble mix (flour, brown sugar, butter) in which I had mixed some oats for extra fiber and fun. I then decided to make a difference between the apple and pear side, so more oats were sprinkled over the pear half, and chia seeds over the apple half.

Each dish was then baked for about 20 to 30 mins at 130˚C to crisp the topping, and make the fruits tender. These dishes were quite large for individual serves.

Apple crumble recipe over here~

Egg-free Frangipane and Pear Tart

Pears getting old in the fruit basket? Time to test a new recipe! I made the crust the same way as I always do (see recipe). Then I topped it with frangipane, an almond-based paste.

Since frangipane is usually made with eggs, I had to look for a good substitute, which I found on Z'oeufs peux pas, a French blog written by a mother with some kids who have egg allergies. The recipe itself can be found at this link, and is translated below.

As the pears were kind of hard, I poached them in sugar syrup with a hint of cinnamon. I topped the pre-baked crusts with the frangipane paste, then laid the sliced pears on top. The whole was baked for about 25 minutes, then glazed in reduced poaching liquid.

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FRANGIPANE RECIPE (for about 7 mini tarts)

  Ingredients

• 50 g butter, softened
• 100 g ground almonds
• 40 g golden sugar
• 63 g golden sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

  Procedure

1. Mix sugar and butter. Add in ground almond.
2. Mix in the plain yogurt and baking powder.
3. Mix until smooth. This is easiest using a fork.

Bread Pudding Topped with Caramelized Pears

For a last dinner among friends before the fall break, I opted for a dessert that not only reminds you of fall, but also used up the pears sitting in my fruits basket.

I adapted the recipe from Delish, but instead of making the pudding myself, I used a pudding packet from the supermarket. The procedure itself was fairly simple.

First, I cut some dried bread into cubes, and made the pudding according to the instructions in the packet. I mixed bread, pudding, some raisins, and cinnamon and nutmeg together and let that rest in a mixing bowl a bit.

Then I caramelized the pears (a task made difficult by the overly soft pears), then laid them out at the bottom of a large springform pan. I poured in the bread pudding mix, and baked the whole thing for 45 minutes. After that, I flipped it onto a plate, so that the caramelized pears were on top~

It was a little sweet out of the oven, but after a night sitting out on the counter, it was perfectly fine.