30 August 2012

PEAR & ALMOND CROISSANT PUDDING

This dessert is a variation on bread and butter pudding, made with sliced almond filled croissants from French baker Paneton. Traditionally French bakers would stuff almond paste into their left-over croissants, and rebake them for sale next day. Paneton, an Auckland wholesale bakery, make their almond croissants fresh every day, and they’ve become their hero product. If you can’t find almond croissants, use classic croissants and scatter over 2 tablespoons of ground almonds. I have used fresh sliced Angelys pears with lemon rind and juice for extra flavour and balance in the pudding. If you’re serving this for a dinner party prepare everything ahead of time, and just before you sit down to dinner, pour the vanilla-scented custard over the prepared croissant and pear mixture and pop it in the oven. It will happily bake while you’re eating.

• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 300ml cream
• 250ml milk
• 4 almond croissants, sliced into 4-5 pieces
• 3 ripe Angelys pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
• 4 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the vanilla bean and sugar in the combined cream and milk. Bring to simmering point then turn off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes to infuse with the vanilla flavour. Meanwhile, place the sliced croissants in a well buttered attractive ovenproof baking dish, overlapping the slices. Sprinkle the pears with the lemon juice and zest, and then add them to the croissants, tucking them in between the slices. Add the strained, infused milk and cream to the eggs. Beat well then pour over the croissants and pears. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard is set and the pudding is puffy and golden. Serve immediately with yoghurt or whipped cream.

Serves 6.