James Martin's Poached Pear

 

“This combination of brioche, poached pear and caramel works brilliantly. Apples would work too, but they must be eating apples, so they’ll cook through in the time the brioche takes to bake. Figs are also good in season. Briefly proving the brioche dough just before baking it makes for a lighter result and a contrasting texture to the poached pear. I like a simple caramel sauce with this, but feel free to try it with a salted caramel or chocolate sauce.” – James Martin, Sweet

---

Whole poached pear baked in brioche with caramel sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 pears with stalk

100ml water

50g caster sugar

lemon, juiced

280g brioche dough, proved once

flour for dusting

butter, for greasing

125g natural marzipan, rolled out to 5mm thick

4 bay leaves

For the Caramel Sauce

100g caster sugar

100g butter

160ml double cream

---

For the full recipe go to Cooked.com

Sweet by James Martin is available in stores and online from Amazon and Waterstones

Photography by Peter Cassidy