Autumn Recipes from the Blue Ball:

Spiced Pear with Millionaire's Shortbread

With the summer long gone people often struggle to come up with a decent fruit based dessert outside of apple crumble and poached figs with honey. But fear not...

A ripe pear cooked in a little red wine is a taste sensation and so simple: prepared and cooked in advance, chilled, and ready to serve with little faff, even the most inexperienced cook can pull it off and impress their guests. A little caramel, some chocolate or a simple biscuit make ideal accompaniments but we’re going for all three in the form of millionaire’s shortbread!

For the pears:
4 pears (Willams or Concorde – a Comice/Conference hybrid) Peeled and cored
1 pint red wine
1 pint water
300g castor sugar
2 vanilla pods – split

Bring the wine, water, vanilla and sugar to a boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes then drop in the pears and gently poach for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally. Place the wine and pears into a deep, non metallic bowl then cover and chill overnight. The following quantities will yield far more shortbread than you need to serve with the pears because, let’s be honest, most of it will be eaten before your guests arrive!

For the Millionaire Shortbread
Shortbread:
150g butter
125g icing sugar
225g plain flour
2 egg yolks

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs then gently fold in the flour until well combined. Wrap and chill until firm enough to handle, then roll out and press into a shallow tray which has been lined with baking parchment. Prick all over with a fork and bake at 150 degrees for 12 minutes or until beginning to turn golden.

Toffee:
1 tin condensed milk – cover with water and boil for 4 hours, topping up the water as necessary. Cool
120g unsalted butter
120g demerara sugar
Pinch of salt

Open the tin of milk and scoop it into a pan. Add the sugar, butter and a pinch of salt. Stir over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves then pour over the shortbread. Cool.

Chocolate Ganache:
200g dark chocolate - melted
120ml double cream
90g butter - melted

Bring the cream to the boil and stir into the chocolate with the butter. Pour over the toffee and chill to set. To serve: Simply drain the pears and sit each in a serving dish. Slice the shortbread into fingers and sit alongside. Enjoy! Monthly recipe as featured in Fiveways magazine. Back to recipes.