A sophisticated and lightly spiced dessert made from pears poached in Amarula Cream Liqueur.
- Preparation time: 20mins.
- Cooking time: 10mins.
- Difficulty: Hard
- Key ingredients: Pears , Pistachios
- Occasions: Social Events , Summer BBQ Favorites
- Type: Cream
- 750ml Amarula Cream Liqueur
- 125ml Water
- 3tbsp granulated sugar
- 0.5tbsp cardamom pods
- 1 whole clove
- 1 whole vanilla pod, seeds removed and pod kept
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 medium firm pears, peeled, leaving stems in tact
- For the Crumble:
- 125g butter, melted
- 125g Pistachios
- 375g cake flour
- 125g sugar
- 0.5tsp salt
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- In a food processor, pulse the pistachios a few times until roughly chopped.
- Add the flour, sugar, and salt, and pulse until the ingredients are just combined.
- Add the melted butter and pulse a few times until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs.
- Transfer the crumbs to the prepared baking sheet. Bake until crumble starts to brown at the edges (about 15 minutes). Remove tray from the oven and toss the crumb around a bit with a fork.
- Bake for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until the crumble is golden-brown and very crisp.
- Allow to cool completely before breaking apart into crumbs.
- In a medium sized pot combine the Amarula, water, sugar, cardamom, clove, vanilla seeds and pod and cinnamon stick.
- Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved, then reduce the heat.
- Add the pears to the poaching liquid in the pan. To ensure they are as submerged as possible, lie them on their sides.
- To ensure even cooking, turn the pears every few minutes. Turn off the heat once the pears feel soft when pierced with a blunt knife.
- For the Amarula cream, fold the honey and Amarula into the double thick cream and set aside.
- Serve the pears with a dollop of the cream and sprinkling of the crumble.