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Mike van de Elzen: Pear crumble with pouring cream and burnt blackberry marshmallow

Author: Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2026, 11:57am

Pear crumble with pouring cream and burnt blackberry marshmallow

Crumble mix

200 gm unsalted butter

150 gm raw sugar

200 gm plain flour

50 gm wholemeal flour

50 gm chopped dates

Preheat oven to 170*C. Blitz all of the ingredients until just combined, apart from the dates. Spread the mix out on 1 large baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven. Add in the dates and turn the mix over with a spatula or wooden spoon then return to the oven for a further 15 minutes until crunchy and golden. Allow to cool, before crushing into slightly smaller pieces.

Pear, apple and berry filling

500 packman pears, peeled and chopped

500 gm granny smith apples, peeled and chopped

200 gm frozen blackberries

150 gm sultanas

100 gm raw sugar

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Keep the pears and apples in cold lemon water whilst preparing them, to avoid turning brown

In a large saucepan over a high heat sauté the apples, pears in the oil until they just start to gain a touch of colour and soften. Remove and in a large bowl combine with the remaining ingredients.

Pouring cream

250 ml cream

1 tbsp vanilla paste

Icing sugar if required

Combine the pouring cream with the vanilla paste and set aside

Blackberry marshmallow

350 gm caster sugar

30 gm liquid glucose

80 ml water

180 gm or 6 egg whites

1 tbsp freeze-dried blackberries

Bring the sugar and water together in a pot and heat till 110*c, keeping the sides of the pot clean with a brush dipped in cold water.

Start beating your egg whites at this stage, you want the egg whites to be stiff before adding the sugar, turn down to a medium speed to stabilize whites before adding sugar.

When the sugar reaches 120*c, take of the heat and slowly pour over the egg whites. Turn the mixer up faster as the sugar blends in.

Continue to beat until the egg whites are cool and glossy. Fold through the blackberry powder and place mixture into piping bags ready.

To serve:

Preheat the oven to 160*c

Put 2-3 big spoonsful of the apple mix into the average sized cups (about 250ml capacity), then top with the same amount of the crumble mix.

Place into the oven for 25 minutes insuring the crumble mixture doesn’t colour any further.

Remove the crumbles from the oven and pipe over a dollop of marshmallow, using a blow torch then to burn the top. Just before serving the pour a tbsp of cream into the crumble.

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