Are you looking for a delicious dessert to create this Winter? Wedgewood Nougat and Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine have teamed up to create this scrumptious ginger and almond pie. ‘I crave pecan pie, so this is my take on the traditional pie – made even more delicious with the additional Wedgewood Angels Nougat Biscuit base and Nougat chunks,’ Jackie tells us.
INGREDIENTS
For the pastry
150 g Champagne Valley Cake Flour
100 g Wedgewood Angels Nougat Biscuits, Ginger-Finely blended
15 ml icing sugar
Pinch fine Oryx salt
150 g salted butter, cold and cut into small blocks
1 egg yolk
60 ml cold water
For the filling
85 g salted butter, soft
95 g brown sugar
2 eggs
5 ml vanilla extract
Pinch fine Oryx salt
10 g fresh ginger, grated
85 ml golden syrup
80 g almonds, whole and roasted
80 g Wedgewood Almond Nougat
For the ginger-poached pears
1,5 L water or ginger beer
200 g white sugar
1 orange, cut in half
4 pears, peeled and cored
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 clove
20 g fresh ginger, chopped
80 g Wedgewood Almond Nougat
METHOD
For the pastry
1. Sift the flour, biscuit crumbs, icing sugar and salt together.
2. Add the butter, and work in lightly with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Whisk the egg yolk and water together.
4. Make a hole in the middle of the flour mixture, pour in the water and egg mixture and work lightly into a dough. Press the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour, to get cold.
5. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to fit a 35x11cm pie dish or any similar size (we use a rectangular tin but you can very easier use a 22cm diameter pie dish). Press the pastry into the pastry pie dish, trim the edges and prick the base with a fork. Place back into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.
6. Bake blind with rice/ beans at 200⁰C for about 25 – 30 minutes or until cooked. (Note: to bake blind a tart case, means to partially or completely bake the tart case before filling it. When blind baking, the tart case is lined with parchment/ baking paper and then filled with uncooked beans or rice, and then baked. This prevents the crust from puffing up while it bakes. After baking, the beans or rice are removed and the tart case is filled.)
For the filling
1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Add the vanilla, salt, fresh ginger, golden syrup, combining well.
4. Arrange the almonds and nougat into the pie shell, pour the filling mixture over to fill the tart case.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 160⁰C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool down and set. Cut and serve with ginger poached pears
For the ginger-poached pears
1. Bring the Water and Sugar to the boil, stirring continuously
2. Squeeze the orange into this liquid and add the orange skin to this mixture to continue infusing
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the syrup and simmer until the pears are just-soft, not falling apart. Serve with the Wedgewood Nougat and Almond Pie and thick dollops of fresh cream.
