Caramel Pots with Poached Pears
This creamy, velvety-textured caramel custard, paired with soft poached pears and topped with a crunchy macadamia crumble tastes like everything you want in a gourmet dessert.
Ingredients
For the Caramel Petit Pots
- 450 ml heavy cream
- 80 ml full fat milk
- 5 egg yolks
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 100 g caster sugar
For the Poached Pears
- 4 pears
- 800 ml water
- 200 g caster sugar
- 2 whole star anis
- ½ lemon
For the Garnish
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 50 g macadamia brittle blended to a crumble
Instructions
For the Caramel Petit Pots
- In a bowl whisk the egg yolks until well blended and set aside.
- In a medium size pot, combine the cream with milk, salt and vanilla essence and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, start making the caramel by adding the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat.
- Let the sugar start to melt and stir occasionally. The sugar will start browning after 5-10 minutes. The darker the caramel, the more taste you will have in your final dessert. Once it reaches an amber dark colour, add the cream mixture carefully while whisking.
- Keep whisking until all the bits of caramel are dissolved. Now slowly pour the caramel mixture over the egg yolks while whisking. When the mixture is smooth add it back into the pot and heat up on medium temperature.
- Bring the mixture to a temperature between 70 and 80 degrees while whisking constantly. If you don't have a thermometer, test the consistency of the caramel, by running the mixture over a back of a spoon. When the spoon is well coated, the custard is ready. Fill the glasses with the custard and leave to set in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours.
For the Poached Pears
- Prepare a bowl with cold water and add the juice of half a lemon. Peel the pears and keep them in the lemon water to avoid them going brown. Cut each pear into even sized cubes and place them back in the lemon water.
- In a medium pot bring the the water and sugar to a boil. Add the star anis and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the diced pears and poach on medium heat for about 8 minutes. Cool the pears in the cooking syrup and keep chilled until before plating up the dessert.
For the Garnish and final plating
- In a kitchen bowl, whisk the cream until stiff and set aside.
- Garnish the caramel custard with the poached pears and top with a spoon of the whipped cream and a sprinkle of the macadamia crumble.
- Serve straightaway. If making in advance, you can assemble the dessert minus the crumble to keep in the fridge. Sprinkle the crumble right before serving.
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