Pear Flan

Here is a great way to turn garden pears into a scrumptious dessert. The addition of ground almonds gives it a macaroon-style finish.

You will need:

70 mls sunflower oil - olive oil would have too heavy a flavour for this recipe
3 oz ground blanched almonds
1 egg
3 oz white sugar
dash of milk - 2 tablespoons, to be precise
2 oz self-raising flour
3 pears, slightly firm if possible

8 - 9 inch shallow earthenware dish, e.g a quiche dish

• Preheat the oven to 180 C 
• Brush the dish with a thin coating of oil
• With a whisk, combine the oil, almonds, egg, sugar and milk. Finally, fold in the flour.
• Now you need to work quickly: peel the pears, cut in half lengthways and use a knife to cut out the core along the length of the inside.
• Place approximately 2/5 of the mixture on the bottom of the dish. It shouldn't quite touch the sides.
• Arrange the pears (6 halves) on top of the mixture.

• Finally, dollop the rest of the mixture on top of the pear halves.

• Place in hot oven. After about 25 minutes, the flan will look brown and cooked. However, as the fruit will have given out a bit of fluid, it is unlikely to be thoroughly cooked through. Cover the flan with tin foil, reduce the heat slightly and check after 10 minutes then every 5 minutes or so until the mixture in the centre is firm but springy to the touch.

• The flan is delicious served warm from the oven. Ice cream is a lovely addition. However, it is difficult to lift a portion from the dish without it breaking when warm and will transfer to a dessert bowl much more easily if left to cool completely.

Variations:

• grated rind of one lemon will add extra zing
• 1/2 oz cocoa powder and an extra tablespoon of milk will give a chocolate pear flan.
• you could increase the quantities of sponge mixture - it is delicious, after all. You would need to adjust cooking times to accommodate this. However, the summer heat means that our physical activity is greatly reduced so I prefer to keep the sponge portion rather meagre. Less is more!