RUBY PEAR, WHITE CHOCOLATE & MACADAMIA CRUMBLE
SERVES 4
“A crazy but mightily delicious superchunky crumble. This pudding has a deconstructed cookie top, with a hint of spices, oats and coconut, layered with chunks of white chocolate and chopped roasted macadamias. Underneath you’ve got simple red-wine-cooked pears with a dash of vanilla, slightly thickened so there’s a sauce around the fruit. It’s the ruby dessert to get your spirit warm.”
3 cups (750ml) red wine, plus extra 1/ 2 cup (125ml) red wine or water 20g cornflour 125g brown sugar 2 tsp vanilla extract 6 pears, peeled, cored, quartered
(substitute drained canned pears) 100g macadamias 120g plain flour 1 tsp ground ginger
1/ 2 tsp ground allspice 50g unsalted butter, softened 1/ 3 cup (30g) each desiccated coconut and rolled oats 2 tbs milk 150g white chocolate, finely chopped Vanilla ice cream, to serve Place red wine in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil. Boil until it has reduced to 2 cups (500ml) – this will take about 5 minutes. Combine cornflour and 75g sugar in a bowl, then whisk cornflour mixture into reduced wine. Add vanilla, pear and extra red wine, and bring to a gentle simmer. Continue to simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes, then uncover and simmer for a further 5 minutes or until pears are tender. (If using canned pears, just fold through red wine mixture and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes to warm through.)
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan.
Place macadamias on a baking tray and roast for 8 minutes or until golden. When cool enough to handle, finely chop.
To make the crumble, using your fingertips, rub flour, spices and butter in a bowl until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir through the coconut, oats, milk and remaining 50g sugar, and chill until needed.
Transfer pear mixture to the prepared pan. Sprinkle over one-third crumble mixture, then scatter over one-third chocolate and one-third chopped macadamias. Repeat layering process with another one-third crumble, one-third chocolate and one-third macadamias. Top with remaining crumble and remaining chocolate.
Place the pan on a baking tray and bake for 40 minutes or until golden and bubbling around the edges. Scatter with remaining one-third macadamias and serve with vanilla ice cream.