Pear and walnut twist

Easter's come and gone in the blink of an eye... but that doesn't mean we have to stop eating, right? Here's the recipe for a delicious pear and walnut twist, brought to you by Radisson Blu Resort and Spa chef Jimmy Aquilina

1 April 2018, 8:00pm
by Jimmy Aquilina

2 min read

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Ingredients

Brioche pastry

• 1,550g flour

• 6 whole eggs

• 150g butter unsalted

• 20g salt

• 120g sugar

• 575ml milk

• 50g yeast

• 950g pastry margarine

Pastry cream

• 450g sugar

• 150ml water

• 9 whole eggs

• 50g cornflour

• 50g butter

Filling

• 4 pears, peeled and chopped

• 200g chopped walnuts

• 200g raisins

• 50ml dark rum

Method

1. Soak the raisins in the rum overnight.

2. To make the brioche, knead all the ingredients together with the exception of the pastry margarine. Leave it to rest for 1 hour.

3. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough to an approximately 25cm square.

4. Place the pastry margarine in the centre of the dough and bring each corner of the dough to the centre of the butter to enclose it completely.

5. Roll out the dough to a 40cm x 15cm rectangle, then fold the lower third of the pastry over the centre third and the top third of the pastry down over that.

6. Leave it to rest for 30 mins in fridge.

7. Repeat this process two more times.

8. To make the pastry cream, bring the water to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan with the sugar and simmer until the sugar dissolves and a syrup has formed.

9. Whisk together the eggs and cornflour.

10. In a Bain Marie cook the sugar syrup and the egg mixture to a thick consistency.

11. Add the butter and refine with a hand blender.

12. Allow to cool and store in fridge.

13. To make the fruit filling mix the rum-soaked raisins with the remaining ingredients.

14. Divide the dough into two and roll out into two rectangles.

15. Spread filling down the length of the centre of the strips. Cut slanting strips at 3/4-inch intervals along both sides up towards the centre using a pastry wheel. Fold strips over the filling in a crisscross manner.

16. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 30 mins until golden.

17. Dust with icing sugar and serve.