Tuesday-Poached Pear in Cage

Here's another excellent dessert recipe I made yesterday. There are 3 reasons why I baked this dessert. First: I have three untouchable pears left in my fridge, no ones seem interested to finish them off. Secondly: the lattice pattern and thirdly; the whole idea about poached pear.I looooovvvveeee 'cooked/baked-fruit' as dessert. The combination from fruit aromas mixed with the spices i.e cinnamon and cloves are just heaven..Same goes to this cage puff. BigDaddyO loved it so much and requested me to do another batch of it. he he insyaAllah =p

These puffs were rather less elegant than the one I saw on the internet, [one of mine got a big hole at the back], but trust me, no one will care once they take a bite. he he Google on 'pear in a cage' and you'll end up with few photos on how these puffs should look like..  My puffs are made by amateurish home chef je =p 

Poached Pear in Cage 

{Recipe is inspired and taken from Sprinkle Bakes's Honeyed Pear in Puff Pastry..TQ =D}

Yield: 2 medium sized puff

• 4 small pears-I used 2 pears
• 1 sheet of ready made puff pastry dough, thawed
• 4 cups water-half
• 2 cups sugar-half
• 1 cup honey-I used golden syrup
• 1/2 lemon-omit
• 1 vanilla bean, seeded with hull reserved
• 3 sticks of cinnamon-1 stick
• 6-8 whole cloves-omit

1. Peel pears and core from the bottom. 
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the 4 cups water, 2 cups sugar and 1 cup honey. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. When the sugar has melted, add the pears, vanilla seeds and hull, 1/2 lemon, cinnamon and cloves. Simmer pears until they are fork tender. This can take 20-40 minutes, depending on the ripeness of your pears. 
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
4. When the pears are soft, remove them from the pot and allow them to cool slightly. Discard solid pieces from saucepan.
5. Cut 2 medium size of puff pastry in square. about the same size as your pear.
6. Put the pear on the puff pastry [bottom layer]
7. As for the top layer, make several cuts just like below lattice pattern, and stretched it a lil bit, be careful not to tear it, [or you'll end up like mine-the big hole huhu] and put it on top of the pear. secure both end with fork or your hands. 
8. Baked it for 15-20 mins or until the puff pastry turns golden brown. Serve with ice-cream. 

lattice pattern