A few weeks ago I had a great dinner at Peel Street with some of my local blogging friends. After I got the dates wrong and only managed to turn up for the last few minutes of pre-drinks at Clever Little Tailor, we moved on to Peel Street for our 6:30pm booking.
This was my third time at Peel Street, but the only time I’ve been with friends. I find it’s a great spot to pop into when I want a sightly more indulgent lunch. Dinner was fantastic, as was to be expected… I haven’t had a bad meal here since. We ummed and ahhed over the dessert menu and decided on getting two to share between the five of us.
There was the quince panna cotta and the poached pear with chocolate sorbet. I’ll admit, this was my first time eating quince in any form other than quince paste. I learnt quite a few things including how sweet they can become, and the fact that they turn a magnificent shade of pink once cooked. Everyone round the table assured me that I had to cook something with quince ASAP because as well as tasting beautiful, the smell fill your kitchen with a fantastic aroma.
Initially I’d planned on a pear and quince crumble to try and woo a potential beau, but that fell through and I was looking for a new opportunity to whip out this crumble and try my new ice cream maker. Thankfully the situation presented itself when one of my housemates and I invited Tyson from Tempting Tyson. Romance was not in the air, but at least we were good friends after a good feed.
Pear and Quince Crumble Pie
When I mentioned to my housemates I was going to be making either a crumble or a pie, they shouted “pie!” simultaneously. Instead I combined the two. Using a sweet pastry tart shell and a crumble topping. Pastry & crumble… the best of both worlds. I served the crumble (after consultation with Twitter) with David Lebovitz’s cinnamon ice cream–I feel it may become a regular addition to our freezer.
Pâte Sucrée (Sweet Pastry)
125g unsalted butter
63g icing sugar
2 eggs
250g plain flour
1/4tsp baking flour
Make your pastry in advance. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, making sue they are well incorporated. Keep eggs at room temperature and they’re less likely to separate the mixture.
Once all eggs are added and well incorporated, add the flour and baking powder and then beat briefly until mixture is combined. You don’t want to over-mix.
Gather the dough together into a disk and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (it will last up to a week).
Remove dough from the refrigerator and roll into a circle 3mm thick. Roll the dough onto your rolling pin and then place it onto your tart tin. I use a tart ring without a base. The dough is so buttery that I don’t need to worry about baking paper and it’s so easy to remove.
The tart tin should be already on a baking tray that is lined with baking paper.
Carefully press the dough into the tart ring and remove any excess dough. Sweet paste is a very forgiving dough to work with. If you end up with any holes, just fill them in with a bit of extra pastry. This recipe makes more than enough dough, so you can save some for another tart or pie, or you can even use the left over dough to make biscuits.
Return the tart shell to the fridge.
Pear and Quince
1kg quince
300g cater sugar
3/4 cup water
1 vanilla bean
750g pear
Peel, core and quarter your quinces.
Place them in a pot with the sugar and water.
Slice open a vanilla bean pod and scrape the seeds into the pot, add the remaining bean as well. You can add other spices if you like.
Simmer the quinces in the sugar mix, partially covered, for about an hour and a half. Check occasionally to stir and check the liquid has not completely dissolved.
Meanwhile peel and core your pears, and slice them into wedges.
When the quinces are soft and are lightly pink, add the pears and cook for a remaining 10-15 minutes. You do not want the pears completely soft, as they provide an varied texture in the crumble.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Remove your tart shell from the oven, and spoon in the pear and quince mix. You will probably have a bit of liquid left in the pot. Don’t add this as it can make the tart too wet.
Bake for around 30 minutes–do not turn the oven off.
Crumble
100g plain flour
120g brown sugar
1tsp ground cinnamon
60g rolled oats
120g unsalted butter
While the pie is in the oven. Combine all the dry ingredients for the crumble.
Rub in the butter. It doesn’t matter if the crumble isn’t particular fine.
Once the pie has been in the oven for 30 minutes, remove it, sprinkle on the crumble, and then bake for a remaining 30 minutes.
The crumble forms a biscuit like topping.
Remove the pie from the oven, and transfer to a platter or cake stand.
