Wine poached Pears

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For Halloween, we decided to do wine poached pears ! Ok, we know it isn't a Halloween classic but we thought the deep red colour of the pears looks almost blood-like (and with some whipped cream, we even achieved this brain-like look in our serving glasses). Spooky !

Wine poached pears are a traditional dessert from the Burgundy vineyards in eastern France, more specifically, the Beaujolais province. In French, we would call this dessert "Poires à la Beaujolaise", and we would poach them specifically with Beaujolais wine, however, you may use any wine of your personal preference for this recipe. 

This dessert can come in handy because it has the advantage of being prepared the day before, on top of being super easy. The trick is to get pears that are not ripe. This is important because if your pears are already very ripe, they will get soft and mushy, while you want them to hold their shape and stand up themselves.

We will only do 4 pears here, however, you can probably get up to 6 pears depending on the size of your saucepan. You can also keep the spiced wine, reheat it slowly for poaching a second batch of pears the day after, or simply strain the wine and drink it (heat it up a little bit for extra mulled wine goodness) !

The whipped cream is totally optional here, and for more convenience, you can substitute the handmade cream for canned whipped cream. We would advise you not to choose sweetened whipped cream because the wine sauce is already sweet. 

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30 minutes

30 - 40 minutes + 24h resting time

4

Melon jam

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Melon is the perfect summer fruit. Loaded with sweetness and flavour, it's also super refreshing to eat on a hot summer day, and very versatile because it can be delicious in a fruit salad or with a nice prosciutto platter. Today we decided to make cantaloupe melon jam, the fleshiest of all the melons. Spread on a freshly baked bread slice, it's a perfect way to start the day. 

For obvious reasons, melons tend to give a lot of water when heated, and depending on your taste, you might want to add some extra jellifying agent to this recipe, such as agar or extra pectin if you don't want to go for the traditional animal-made gelatin sheets. We don't mind it a bit runny (but not liquid), because on top of being spreadable, it can also easily be used as glazing on tarts & cakes to add a lovely looking shine. 

If it's your first time making jam, make sure to boil your jars & lids and let them dry on a clean cloth before pouring the jam in it : this will ensure no nasty mold will grow and will allow you to keep it for as long as 6 months up to a year. Also, for extra security, fill up your jar to the very top, close the lid very tight, and let them cool down completely upside down. 

Jam is traditionally made "tant-pour-tant", which means as much sugar as fruits (1 kilo of melon = 1 kilo of sugar). Yes.. Yes... That's a lot, but keep in mind that chances are you won't eat the full jar in one day. In this recipe, because we're also adding honey, we've reduced the amount of sugar slightly, but tried to keep a ratio of approximately 60% fruit - 40% sugar. If you're not using honey, we advise you to use the tant-pour-tant method to ensure your jam won't turn into a soup. 

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20 minutes + 24h resting time

40 minutes

6 jars  (370g/each)

Pain d’épices - Spiced French loaf with Honey

Today we're doing "Pain d'épices", sometime incorrectly translated as gingerbread, a delicious spiced loaf sweetened with honey. It's a compact bread to slice finely, perfect for breakfast or tea time toast.

Origins of this cake go back as far as Ancient Egypt, where they first made a  type of "honey bread". Europeans brought back the recipe during the Crusades, and it's around the XIV century that some bakers from Reims, had the idea to add a combination of spices to the bread. They created the Corporation of Spice Bread Makers of Reims in 1571, claimed monopoly on the recipe, and were later officially recognized by Henry IV of France in 1596.

Nowadays, the recipe has some variation but we're making the original Reims Pain d'épices, without milk, eggs and butter. If you're living in Ireland, you might need visit a specialized store to get the rye flour (we got it from Holland&Barrett).

To unleash the full potential of this cake, you will need to roll it in cling film and leave to rest for 2 to 3 days (if you can wait that long) for the flavors to spread in the cake, but it may as well be eaten out of the oven ! Also, because of the amount of honey used in this recipe, this cake can be preserved a long time - probably 3-4 weeks - that is, of course, only if you're using real honey.

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15 minutes

60 minutes

10-12 slices