Weissbier and Honey Poached Pears

Poached pears are a classic dish that usually uses red or white wine. I decided to do something a bit different and try Weihenstephaner Hefe, a wheat beer from the The World's oldest continuously operating brewery from a Bavarian monastery in Germany. I think using a weissbier gives a bright and refreshing taste to the pears, that go well with honey and cardamon.

The recipe is quite simple and uses just a few ingredients. Take mini forelle pears and carefully peel them leaving the stem attached. Place them in a sauce pan deep enough to cover the pears in liquid. Pour the beer over the pears and add a cup of water. Season the liquid with a half cup of honey, scored vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and a tablespoon each of cardamon, star anise and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to simmer slowly for about an hour until tender. Remove and chill the pears. To make a syrup, strain the liquid and reduce to a thin caramel.

Place the pears on a bed of creme fraiche, drizzle the syrup over the dish and sprinkle with toasted almonds.

Homemade Tebirkes

Tebirkes were my favorite Danish pastry when I lived in Copenhagen. One of the many types of wienerbrød this one is flaky and not too sweet. They go great with a cup of tea anytime. When my pastry chef gave me a super easy recipe for a puffpastry-like dough, I decided it was time to make my own. Birkes is Danish for poppy seeds and tebirkes are basically a butter dough folded over a marzipan spread and sprinkled with poppy seeds.

Here's the recipe. Makes about 12

 The dough

• half pound butter
• half pound cream cheese
• half pound flour

The Filling

• Half cup marzipan ( you can buy it in tubes in the baking section of supermarkets)
• Half cup butter

Step One

1. Cut the butter and cream cheese into 1 cm cubes
2. Dust with some flour and combine in a paddle mixer
3. Add rest of flour and mix until just combined ( should be still a bit streaky)
4. wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour

Step Two

1. Cream the butter and marzipan into a spread
2. Roll dough into a long rectangle about a half cm thick
3. spread middle third of dough with marzipan mix
4. Fold first third of dough over the middle and fold the other third over the first
5. Cut the dough "log" into 5cm pieces, brush with eggwash and sprinkle with poppy seeds
6. refrigerate again, and when hard, bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes until golden

These turned out really great and Sarah's recipe is so much easier than making butter puff pastry from scratch