Vegetarian: Pear & Ginger Sponge Pudding
How long will it take?
How hard is it?
How many people can do it together?
1 hour
Easy
As many as you like
Autumn
a wildish story
Pears have a habit of being hard for ages, then all becoming ripe at once. This is a good place to put a few of them. Soft fruit, a warm ginger sponge and something to look forward to after a damp afternoon outside.
What do you need?
Ingredients - Serves 6
3 ripe but firm pears, about 500g before peeling
1 tbsp lemon juice
125g softened butter, plus a little for greasing
125g soft light brown sugar
2 medium eggs
150g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp demerara sugar
How to do it.
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan. Grease a baking dish roughly 20 × 25cm and at least 5cm deep.
Peel and core the pears, then cut into thick slices. Toss with the lemon juice.
Beat the butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the measured flour if the mixture begins to split.
Fold in the remaining flour, ginger, cinnamon and salt, then stir in the milk to make a soft batter.
Spread the batter into the dish. Arrange the pear slices over the top, pressing them gently into the surface, and sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake for 35–45 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the sponge rather than a pear slice comes out clean. If the top colours too quickly, loosely cover with foil.
Rest for 10 minutes before serving warm with custard.
Wildish tip: Use pears that give slightly when pressed near the stalk. Very hard pears can stay firm even after the sponge has cooked.
