Vegan Poached Pear and Custard Tart Recipe

These impressive vegan poached pear and custard tarts not only look amazing but taste delicious too! There are quite a lot of elements to the dish but it is definitely worth it. Jerome and I made these together when we had an overload of pears at our house. There is nothing more delicious and luxurious than a perfectly poached pear. If you are short on time you can purchase vegan sweet short crust pastry from your local supermarket. Also,  you don't need to cut and fan out the pear like we have, you can just poach it and sit it in the custard to be quick. I hope you all enjoy this recipe. Enjoy! :)

Serves: 4
Prep time: 25 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes


Sweet Pastry:
100g vegan margarine
200g plain flour
40g icing sugar

Custard:
1 ½ level tablespoons corn flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 cup Soy Milky Lite
1 vanilla bean

Poached Pears:
4 (800g) pears
1 ½ litres of water
2 cups brown sugar

Make the pastry:

1. Add the flour and icing sugar to a bowl and stir until combined. Add the margarine and massage with your hands until it forms a soft crumb. Bring it together into a soft round ball (If it doesn't come together, add a bit more margarine until it's soft enough). Cover and place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rest.
2. Preheat oven to 180C. Divide the pastry into 4 sections and roll out the dough into 4 thin layers. Place the rolled out pastry onto four 12cm tart tins, making sure to press the pastry tightly into the corners of the tins. Prick the base of the pastry a few times with a fork to prevent the base from bubbling. Add pastry weights if desired to prevent the base from rising and bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned and crispy.

Poach the pears:

1. Peel the pears, leaving the stem on and intact. Cut a slice off the bottom of each pear so that they sit flat and upright.
2. Bring the water to the boil in a sauce pan. Then add the brown sugar to the saucepan and stir until dissolved. Submerge the pears, ensuring they are completely covered in water and boil for 15 minutes or so until they are tender and can be poked with a knife.
3. Take off the heat, remove the pears from the syrup and allow to cool. Keep the syrup aside for serving if desired.
4. Use a teaspoon to remove the core from the bottom of the pear. With the pears sitting upright, use a knife to make vertical cuts every ½ centimetre to the centre of the pear beginning 2 centimetres down from the stem.

Make the custard:

1. Add the soymilk, corn flour and sugar to a saucepan. Use a knife to halve a vanilla pod and scrape out the vanilla seeds. Add the vanilla seeds and the pod to the saucepan. Whisk all ingredients until combined.
2. Place the saucepan on medium heat. Whisk until the custard is brought the boil then take off the heat and leave to cool and thicken. Discard the vanilla pods.

Prepare it:

1. Fill the pastry tarts halfway with custard.
2. Sit the pears on top of the custard and to make the fanned pear, push the pear downwards and twist for the fanned effect. Serve and drizzle with poaching liquid if desired.

• Use store bought vegan sweet shortcrust pastry to save time.
• Freeze any leftover pastry for future use. 

The nutrition information above is an approximate guideline.