Boozy rum and pear trifles

The original recipe describes these lovely little trifles as ‘the perfect post-Christmas meal dessert; light, creamy and fruity and just a little bit boozy’. Well they may have been a ‘little bit boozy’ when made in the intended fashion – my take however insists you triple the required amount of rum. Who wants just a little bit of booze at Christmas?

Ingredients

2 x 390g jar of baby pears in vanilla.*
25g butter
6 trifle sponges
12 + tbsp dark rum **
150g double cream
15g icing sugar
250g tub of mascarpone
50g dark chocolate, ‘peeled’ with a vegetable peeler or made into curls

For the pear crisps***

1x  pear
25g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

* Opies were recommended but despite seraching high and low I couldn’t find these. In the end I poached my own making sure to make enough syrup.

** The original recipe calls for 3-6.

*** I buggered these up. Twice. My advice – make more than you need just in case.

Preparation

For the pear crisps, preheat the oven to 140°C/fan120°C/gas 1. Cut the pear in half and each half into 6 thin slices, removing any pips.

Gently simmer the sugar, lemon juice and 1 tbsp water in a small pan until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat and dip each pear slice into the syrup to coat. Put on a lined baking tray and bake for 1 hour or until golden and starting to crisp. Cool on a fresh sheet of baking paper.

Drain the baby pears, reserving 200ml of the syrup. Cut into quarters and remove the stalks and cores.

Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add the pear quarters and cook for 1-2 minutes on each cut side until caramelised, then remove and set aside. Pour the reserved syrup into the pan and simmer until thick, then remove to a bowl. Set aside to cool.

Slice each sponge in half and divide among 6 serving glasses. Spoon ½-1 tbsp rum over each and leave to soak in. Beat the cream with the icing sugar until thickened, then fold in the mascarpone until you have a light, soft cream.

Arrange the pear quarters on the sponges and pour over most of the syrup. Top with a generous spoonful of cream mixture, then chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before serving, sprinkle over the chocolate and decorate each one with a pear crisp. Pour a little more pear syrup over each to serve.