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1 pear, peeled

50g puff pastry. (It's much easier to use a larger block about 100g and then wrap up the leftover bits - maybe try making my Cheese Twirls!)

350ml white wine

350ml water (in a measuring jug with the wine is easiest)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon + a little extra to dust at the end

Half a measure of Galliano liqueur (or if you don't have - half a vanilla pod)

2 cloves

2 glasses of mulled wine (about 175ml each)

3 teaspoons caster sugar

About a teaspoon of demerara sugar

A little plain flour to flour your work surface.

Poached pear

preparation 4 mins • you cook for 16 mins •

Serves 2

Watch a 30 second preview of my cook-along video below

If you cannot view the video below, click here to download QuickTime from Apple's website.

 

This is a really light and tasty dessert that has all the taste and smells of Christmas (apart from Turkey...) Succulent pear that's flavoured with white wine, cinnamon and cloves, wrapped in puff pastry with a sweet & sticky mulled wine sauce. As this dish is nice and light it's perfect for Christmas when we may have already eaten a little too much! This is a three part recipe. In part one we poach the pears. In part two we roll the pastry, bake the pears and make the mulled wine sauce. In part three we finish everything off and serve!

Small saucepan to poach the pear and then make the mulled wine

Baking tray

Rolling pin

Palate knife would be useful but not essential

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Before you start have the cloves, cinnamon, sugar, wine and water ready. Peel the pear and put your saucepan on the hob. Now click here!

Before you start have the puff pastry out with space to roll. Have the pear out on a board and your saucepan rinsed (if you're re-using). Now click here!

Nothing to do before you start so just click here!

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Take the peeled pear and stud it with 2 cloves, 1 on either side. Pop the pear into the saucepan and add in the wine & water. Add half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of caster sugar and either the Galliano or vanilla pod. Turn the heat on to medium and cook for 15 minutes. During this time, it is starts to rapidly boil just turn the heat down to low for a gentle simmer. Turn your oven on now to 200c to preheat.

After 15 minutes remove the pear from the pan to a board and remove the cloves. Discard the poaching liquer and rinse out your saucepan ready for the mulled wine. Lightly flour your work surface, put the pastry on top and start rolling out until you have a really thin layer of pastry.

Take the pear and slice off the top and bottom. Slice the pear in half and carefully remove the core using a small knife. This should be fairly straightforward as the pear should be slightly soft. Place the pear halves flat side down and cut your pastry roughly in half. Drape each pastry half over each pear half! Gently press the pastry with your fingers to find the outline of the pear.

Next cut around the pear leaving a border of about half a cm of extra pastry around the edge, as in the photo to the right.

Repeat this with the other pear half then gently turn both pear parcels over so they are flat side up. Sprinkle with a little demerara sugar. Gently flip them back over onto a baking tray (flat side down!). Pop the tray into the oven - don't worry about timing the pear, when the mulled wine is ready the pears will be ready!

Pour the mulled wine into a small saucepan and add two teaspoons of sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar then turn the heat on high and allow to rapidly boil for 12 minutes. What you are doing here is reducing the liquid to the extent that there is hardly any left in the pan. Check your pan after 11 minutes to ensure that it hasn't boiled dry. You can tell it's ready when it literally changes from pouring off the back of a teaspoon (as normal wine would) to sticking slightly to the spoon. 12 minutes should be perfect for this though.

Turn the heat off everything and remove the pears from the oven. Don't worry if one or both of the pastry cases has fallen off the pear as in the final photo on the right. Simply ease the pear back into the pear shaped pastry.

Turn the parcels over so that they are face up. Very lightly dust the pears with some ground cinnamon and they are ready to serve. Place one of the pears into the centre of a plate and then drizzle some of the mulled wine sauce around the outside using your best artistic flair!

I hope that you enjoy it!

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