Preparation time
less than 30 mins
Cooking time
30 mins to 1 hour
Serves
Serves 2
Dietary
Vegetarian

From Saturday Kitchen
Ingredients
For the poached pears
- 500ml/18fl oz pear juice
- 100g/3½oz caster sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 10 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 10 black peppercorns
- 2 Williams pears, peeled and cored
For the tart
- 500g/1lb 2oz puff pastry
- 50g/1¾oz membrillo
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- 100g/3½oz walnuts, roughly chopped
- 100g/3½oz blue cheese, crumbled
To serve
- 150g/5½oz crème fraiche
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
Method
To make the poached pears, place everything apart from the pears in a saucepan and warm through to melt the sugar. Add the pears, bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. When softened, leave to cool in the poaching liquid.
To make the tarts, preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Roll out the puff pastry to the thickness of a 50p piece and cut out two 12cm/5in circles.
Warm the membrillo in a small saucepan and spread onto the pastry circles. Slice the cooled pears and arrange them over the pastry circles. Egg wash the edges and bake for 15 –20 minutes.
Sprinkle the walnuts and blue cheese over the tarts.
Mix the crème fraiche with the vanilla seeds and serve with the tarts.