I fell in love with one other vegan recipe and have been eyeing it lately. Also I spent a fortune on the ingredients because I thought we still had the ingredients and were ready to bake. But sadly, the pears I thought we had were only 2 left. And the dates I thought we had plenty of from Hari Raya were long gone haha.
Since I already had my heart set on the recipe, I went ahead and pestered my mom to buy pears and dates. So we spent money on pears and the dates were not in season so were very expensive. My mom scolded me and said this better be a good recipe!
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| The sticky toffee pear pudding with the pear syrup |
It was interesting to make it. I got the recipe here. (Thanks, Jocelyn) It is vegan and uses dates to give it the toffee stickiness. Very caramel-y. And instead of almond milk, I used soy. I had to boil the dates in soy milk.
Also, the pears were poached in sugar and spices. The tops of the pears were cut off and became the garnish. You can't see it clearly here as I used the wrong tray and the pudding ended up being too tall, covering up the tops of the pears. This is the pic before adding the syrup. You can see the tops of the pears. I wished I used a bigger tray so the pudding would be shallower and you can see the tops of the pears... nice effect. Oh well.. I guess it's more important that it tastes good.
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| The tops of the pears showing through before adding the syrup |
Anyway I had to keep an eye on it baking since the measurements of the pudding were different from the one in the recipe as I used a different tray. It ended up cooking a little faster, and it was dark but not burnt. The dark sugar made it taste dark and decadent. I used molasses instead of muscovado sugar.
The syrup was really sweet as I had reduced it to concentrate. It made the pudding sticky and very sweet. It also had pear chunks to lighten the taste and throw in a little freshness. Really yummy.
Here is one serving and you can see the pear sticking out. It would go well with ice cream. I think it was quite a success and my mom liked it. The only thing was it being in the wrong tray and not having that pear pop out effect. But I guess I learnt that I should always prepare the tray before I even start. Lots of lessons learnt and hope I become a better baker/cook.
Labels: baking, desserts, pudding
