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baked poached pear pie

Poached pear pies

marzipan stuffed amaretto poached pear pies, served with caramel sauce and ice cream.
Great to serve friends at a dinner party or special occasion.
serve warm with caramel sauce and ice cream
Course Dessert
Cuisine european
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

For the poached pears

  • 4 Ripe pears like conference or bosc pears
  • 250 ml Amaretto 1 cup
  • 400 ml water
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 4 tbsp honey
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 vanilla bean pod

Pastry

  • 440 g Plain flour
  • 220 g cold unsalted butter
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp water as needed

extras

  • 1 beaten egg
  • demerara sugar for sprinkling
  • 100 grams marzipan

Instructions
 

Poaching the pears

  • Add the water, amaretto, sugar, lemon juice and honey in a pan. slice the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds and add those and the pod into the poaching liquid. (use a smaller pan so the liquid covers the pears)
  • Peel the pears and add them into the liquid and simmer until tender. you want them to be soft, but not too soft. depending on how ripe they are it can take between 10-25 minutes until the pears begin to soften (as they will then be baked they dont need to be as soft as if you were serving them on their own) Very overly ripe pears will take around 10 minutes, otherwise it will take closer to 25 minutes for whole pears. Leaving them to cool in the poaching liquid means they will continue to cook slightly.
  • Leave the pears to cool down completely, These can be made in advance and left to chill in the poaching liquid over night in the fridge. Chilling them in the poaching liquid over night in the fridge means it will also infuse them with more flavour.
    Alternatively if making on the same day, remove from the liquid and chill on a plate until cold.

Make the pastry

  • Mix the flour, sugar and salt together. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour until it resembles a fine crumb. Add the eggs and mix in. Then add the water a bit at a time until it makes a soft dough. depending on the size of the eggs and the brand of your flour you may need to add more, so judge it and add as much as needed until the dough comes together into a soft dough. I will be around 1 or 2 tbsp.
  • Press the dough into a large flat disk and cover in plastic wrap and chill. See step by step assembly photos in the post above
  • Slice the pears in half and remove the cores with a spoon. Roll small balls of marzipan and add these into the holes.
  • Cut the dough into four, Roll out one portion of the dough and place one of the pear halves on top to one side. (see images)
    Cut around the pear leaving a small lip around the edge. brush around the edge with a beaten egg then cut a larger piece of pastry to cover the top. Drape the pastry over gently with out stretching it and press it around the pear. Cut around the edge leaving a small lip of pastry, turn pears over and gently tuck the the lip underneath so you can't see it. (see assembly photos above)
  • Make some leaves by rolling out some more pastry and cutting it with a knife or a cookie cutter. Then make a stem and attach it. My tip to shape the leaves in a way that they dont fall flat in the oven is to roll up small balls of dough and add them underneath the leaf.
  • Chill covered on a lined tray in the fridge for least 30 minutes to rest. Longer if you wish.
  • Pre heat the oven to 180c 350f
  • Brush with beaten egg and make a some small air holes around the edge. sprinkle some demerara sugar and bake for approx. 35 minutes or until golden. Some may crack, I found that the ones that had time to rest in the fridge and had a few little air holes to allow the steam to escape didn't.
  • Serve with warm caramel sauce and ice cream. you can use store brought caramel sauce and heat it in a pan, or make your own.
Keyword amaretto, pear, pear pie, poached pear