Desserts with apples and pears: 4 recipes to make at home

Desserts with apples and pears, the fruits of September

What's better than the scent of a freshly baked apple pie? Apples and pears are the perfect fruits for making delicious desserts, from classic pies to muffins, without forgetting strudel, fritters and soft cakes. Ideal for health, apples will accompany us for several months in all their varieties: rich in minerals, low in sugar and very low in calories (remember the saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"?). Pears are also a valid ally for our health: they boast abundant vitamins, fibres and antioxidants, and help promote intestinal transit. Curiosity: both apples and pears are considered "false fruits," because in both cases what can technically be defined as fruit is their core. But let's move on to more tempting topics: here are four desserts with apples and pears not to be missed this fall.

Desserts with apples and pears: 4 recipes to try

Muffins with Apples

Ingredients

380 g flour

150 g butter

3 golden or renetta apples

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp.  honey

2 eggs

¾ cup of milk

1 packet of yeast

2 tsp powdered cinnamon

For the garnish:

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Butter and flour for the ramekins

Place honey and butter in a saucepan and while stirring, heat over very low heat until the butter is melted. Break the eggs into a small bowl, add the milk and beat a little with a fork. Peel the apples, core them and cut them into small cubes. Sift the flour with the yeast into a large bowl, add the sugar and cinnamon and mix. Make a hollow in the middle and pour in the mixture of eggs and milk, butter and honey and apples. Mix with a wooden spoon without working the mixture too much, it needs to be a bit chunky. Generously grease and flour six ramekins or muffin tins and distribute the mixture. Sprinkle the tops with sugar and cinnamon, bake in a hot oven at 200°C for 30 minutes, or until the muffins are puffed and golden.

Apple fritters

Ingredients

3 renetta apples

150 g flour

1 whole egg

1 egg white

1 glass of milk

Sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt

Peanut oil for frying

Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the egg, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of sugar and enough milk to obtain a smooth mixture. Cover the batter and let it rest for an hour. Peel the apples whole, core them and cut them into horizontal slices to obtain large rings. Sprinkle them with lemon juice and dust with sugar. Heat the oil in a pan, beat the egg whites until stiff and add them gently to the batter. Dip the apple slices in the batter and gently drop them in the oil, flipping only once. Place the fried apples on a double sheet of kitchen paper and sprinkle with sugar.

Pear and almond crostata

For the brisée pastry

200 g flour

100 g butter

Salt

For the filling

3 ripe kaiser pears

250 g milk

3 egg yolks

60 g sugar

50 g almond flour

50 g slivered almonds

1  vanilla pod

½ tsp powdered cinnamon

1 bag of baking weights for the crust

Prepare the brisée pastry crust with the indicated ingredients. While the dough rests, heat the milk with the vanilla pod slit down the length. Place the egg yolks in a bowl, add sugar and beat with a whisk for a few minutes then pour in the hot milk and, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, cook the cream over very low heat until thick, never reaching the boil. Remove from the heat, discard the vanilla pod and mix in the almond flour with the cream. Grease and flour a cake pan, arrange the dough on the floured pastry board and roll it out with a rolling pin, making a disk about half a centimetre thick. Wrap the disc of dough around the floured rolling pin and spread it out on the cake pan. Cover the dough with baking paper, letting it overhang and fill the cavity with weights to keep it in shape during baking. Bake in a hot oven at 200°C for 20 minutes. Peel the pears and cut them into thin wedges. Remove the cake from the oven, remove the paper and weights and arrange the pear slices on the bottom of the tart, arranging them to radiate with some overlapping. Pour in the cream, sprinkled with cinnamon and put back in the oven for 10 more minutes. Scatter the almond slivers on the surface and continue baking for 15 minutes.

Pear Cake

For the pears in syrup

4 williams pears

150 g sugar

1 vanilla pod

½ lemon

For the cake

10 ladyfingers

½ l milk

4 eggs

100 g sugar

30 g butter

2 Tbsp. liqueur

1 vanilla pod

Peel the pears, divide them in half, remove the part of the core that houses the seeds and dab them with lemon juice to prevent discolouration. Put the sugar in a saucepan, add 3.5 dl of water, the lemon zest and the vanilla pod split down the length. Bring to a boil and, as soon as the sugar has melted, put the half pears in the saucepan and cook gently for five minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the pears rest, soaking in the syrup, for a few hours. When ready to bake the dessert, butter a non-stick cake pan, drain the pears, dry them with kitchen paper and arrange them in a star shape in the pan, cut side down. Sprinkle the ladyfingers lightly with the liqueur and arrange them on top of the pears. Heat the milk with the sugar, the vanilla pod split lengthwise and a pinch of salt. Beat the eggs in a bowl and, while whisking, add the boiling milk. Slowly pour half of the mixture into the pan, pressing on the biscuits to soak them well then add the rest of the mixture. Scatter a few flecks of butter on the surface and place the cake pan in a hot oven at 200°C in a bain-marie double boiler (place it on the oven tray and pour an inch of water into the tray). Bake for about 45 minutes. If the surface tends to brown too much, shield the pan with aluminium foil. Let the cake cool completely before turning it over onto a plate.

by Michela Becchi