Vanilla-Spiced Caramel and Pear Tart

Sometimes you bake something and you know it's special. This is one of those times. This tart is made with a puff pastry and the filling includes butter, vanilla bean, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, sugar and egg. There isn't that much filling because I needed to leave a lot of room for the pears! Believe me, these were some happy pears. Before swimming in the filling, they had already spent some quality time in butter and sugar, with cinnamon, star anise, cloves and vanilla bean.

Yum!

 

Poached Apples with Vanilla Yogurt

This is definitely one of the most luxurious desserts this week.

The base of the dish is Greek style yogurt with honey and the seeds of a vanilla bean. Placed on top of that is an apple that was poached in a Syrah (a fruity red wine) with sugar, orange juice, orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon and star anise. It's topped with a syrup made from the Syrah mix.

The combination should be assembled immediately before serving. Orders for this will be filled by providing separate containers with each of the three elements for assembly when served. While samples included portions of an apple, each serving should be an entire apple, cored, but intact, for an elegant individually plated dish.