INGREDIENTS
1 ¼ cups self-raising flour
¼ cup caster sugar
125 g unsalted butter, diced
2 tbs water
5 Packham pears
2 tsp Eight Spice Powder
Sauce
Pinch Eight Spice Powder
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbs golden syrup
½ cup water
50 g unsalted butter
Roasted hazelnuts and vanilla
Ice cream to serve
Eight-spice powder
20 g juniper berries
30 g whole star anise
15 g white peppercorns
15 g cinnamon quills
15 g cloves
Pinch saffron threads
25 g salt
10 g cardamom pods
Miele Accessories
METHOD
Spiced pear dumplings
- Preheat the oven on Fan Plus at 160°C.
- Combine flour, sugar, butter and water into a mixer or food processor. Pulse until it has formed a dough or use your hands to bring it together. Rest the dough for 20 minutes.
- Peel 3 pears and cut into 2.5 – 3 cm chunks. Season with Eight-spice powder.
- Divide the dough into 9cm circles, 3-4 mm thick. Place 1 piece of pear onto each dumpling and wrap the dough around the fruit, sealing well at the top. Ensure that the pastry is well sealed all around the pear so that it will steam inside whilst the pastry cooks.
- Place seam-side down in an ovenproof dish.
Sauce
- Combine all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour half the sauce over the dumplings. Bake in the Oven, shelf position 2 for approximately 30 minutes or until golden and the dumplings are cooked through.
- Thinly slice the remaining pears lengthways. Heat 2 tbs of the remaining sauce in a frying pan on medium-high heat, Induction setting 7. Add the pear slices and cook, turning, until caramelised. Cool on a baking paper lined universal tray.
- Remove the dumplings from the Oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve with vanilla ice-cream, spooning the sauce over the top. Scatter over some hazelnuts and caramelised pear slices.
Eight-spice powder
- Grind all the spices to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
- Toast the ground spices in a large frying pan over a medium heat, Induction setting 6. Allow to cool.
- Store in an airtight container and use as required.
Hints and tips
- Dumplings can be made in advance, frozen and baked straight from the freezer.
APPLIANCE / FUNCTION
Shannon Bennett
In 2011, acclaimed Australian chef Shannon Bennett undertook the greatest challenge of his life – moving his award winning Vue de monde restaurant to the dramatic new location on the 55th floor of Melbourne’s iconic Rialto building. From the beginning, Shannon’s goal has been to make Vue de monde Australia’s most sustainable restaurant. More than 50 cutting-edge technologies are being utilised, from an E-water system to ‘cold kitchen technology’ (no exposed flames or gas)
