Given fruit on puff pastry

Given fruit on puff pastry. You may wonder about the name, but the explanation is quite simple. I was given some pears and not being a big fan of pears on their own I came up with this dessert. They were a gift hence the name given fruit. There can be another meaning behind it since you can use any given fruit for this dessert.

The idea for the recipe was quite impromptu. I usually have a few packets of frozen puff pastry in the freezer and as I was looking through the cupboards I found some other ingredients I thought might be suitable. The end result turned out to be pleasing enough that I decided to share the recipe here.

Ingredients:

225g/ 1/2lb puff pastry

120g/ 3/4 cup almonds, blanched

50g/ 1/4 cup powdered sugar

2Tbsp powdered sugar

some regular sugar for sprinkling

30g/ 1 1/2tbsp butter

2 eggs, separated

4-5 pears

If you use frozen puff pastry take it out about an hour before so it has the time to defrost. You can also leave it in the fridge over night. Once defrosted lay it flat and cut in rectangles (I was able to cut 10 out of my packet).

Blanching almonds is really easy, so if you only have almonds with skin on, put them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave for 1-2 minutes. Drain the water and peel them by just squeezing them out of their skins. They should come out really easily. Dry them with a paper towel.

Next toast the almonds. Heat up a dry frying pan and place your blanched almonds on. Keep moving them around until they get light brown spots on them. Transfer them to a food processor

Add 50g/ 1/4 cup powdered sugar to the almonds and process until pretty fine. Add butter and process for a couple of seconds to combine together.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks start forming. Add 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and beat until firm and glossy peaks start forming. Add the almonds and fold them in with a rubber spatula.

Peal pears, cut in half and using a metal spoon cut the cores out. 

Brush each rectangle of puff pastry with some egg yolk and roll the sides a bit to create a border around the pastry. Spread the almond and egg white mixture on the puff pastry. 

Slice the pear halves and transfer each half using a knife onto the pastry and then push down a bit so the slices can spread out a bit. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake according to directions on the puff pastry packet (200C/400F in my case) for 20-25 minutes. 

If your pastry comes in a larger packet you might be able to cut more rectangles out of it. Then you will have to adjust the amount of fruit used.

You can skip butter. The almond mixture will probably resemble meringue without butter. 

You can spice the recipe a bit by sprinkling pears with sugar mixed with some powdered ginger or cinammon.