Recipe: Crumble-topped Pear & Almond Slice

Another week, another recipe to use up what's lurking around my fridge. This week, pears.

After getting Ruby Tandoh's book Crumb the other week I've bookmarked a few recipes to try. You may remember rye & caraway bagels, they went down very well. This recipe is essentially a sweet bread topped with honeyed pears, almonds and crumble. Great with a steaming mug of coffee for breakfast.

Although there was no picture in the book, it did state to roll out to a rectangular shape...I went for more of a pizza slice, no one complained!

Crumble-topped pear & almond slice
(Recipe from Ruby Tandoh's Crumb, serves 8).

300g strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey
190ml milk

For the pear topping:

4 firm dessert pears, such as Williams, Comice or Bosc (although I used Conference and they were fine)
30g unsalted butter
4 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp ground allspice
70g flaked almonds

For the crumble topping:

50g unsalted butter, room temperature
50g white flour
40g soft light brown sugar
30g flaked almonds, finely chopped

Combine the flour, yeast and honey together in a mixing bowl. In a small pan, heat the honey and milk on a low temperature until tepid. Pour into the dry ingredients, mix and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough will become less sticky. Loosely cover with clingfilm and leave for an hour at room temperature. The dough will double in size.

Meanwhile, prepare the pears. Peel, core and slice. Melt the butter with honey and allspice on low in a large pan. Once melted, increase to a medium heat and add the pears to caramelised. They will soften and turn golden after 5 minutes if stirred regularly. If they start to disintegrate, remove from the heat. Stir in the flaked almonds and leave to cool.

For the crumble, rub together the butter, flour and sugar between your fingertips until the mixture clumps together. Add the chopped almonds and chill in the fridge.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the risen dough. Roll to around 20x30cm. Place on a large, lined baking tray and prove for 30-45 minutes. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Once proved, arrange the pears on the risen dough with a 1cm border. Sprinkle over the crumble and brush the edges with the leftover honey from the pears. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Recipe: Rye Caraway Bagels

This week I decided to go back to basics. When first starting this blog my intention was to learn to bake at home. I had a long list of everything I wanted to try and over two years on there's still so much I feel like I haven't covered.

Top of said list, bagels. The recipe is from Ruby Tandoh's first baking book, Crumb, which is full of simple, unpretentious home bakes and great flavour combinations.

Rye caraway bagels

(Makes 8, recipe from Ruby Tandoh's Crumb)

325g strong white flour

125g dark rye flour

7g instant dried yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

250ml lukewarm water

1 tbsp oil

2 tbsp caraway seeds

Flour or polenta, to dust

2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda

4 tbsp water

1/2 tsp salt

30g poppy seeds

Oil, to grease

Mix together the flours and yeast in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar, followed by the water and oil. Combine well with hands or on a medium speed with a dough hook in a stand mixer. Continue to knead for 10 minutes (on a low speed if using a stand mixer). The mix should be much less sticky than regular breads. Gently knead in the caraway seeds before covering the bowl with cling film and leaving to prove for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Turn out the risen dough, divide into 8 and shape. To shape into bagels, roll into a ball, push your finger through the centre and twirl around your finger to widen the hole. Dust a baking tray with flour or polenta, place the shaped bagels on and leave to prove for 30-45 minutes at room temperature. The bagels should have risen to almost 1 1/2 times their size.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180 degrees and bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the boiling water and turn down to simmer. In small batches, cook the bagels in the water for 60 seconds each side. Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto well-greased baking trays.

Mix together the 4 tbsp of water and salt and brush over the bagels. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and bake for 25 minutes.