Autumn trifle with poached pears recipe

This Autumn trifle with poached pears recipe is absolutely divine. The perfect chilly day dessert! This Autumn trifle with poached pears from Friends of Glass is served in a round jam jar and will wow guests. Why not hunt out some jam jars and recreate it today?

Serves 8

Ingredients

6 medium comice pears, peeled
700ml red wine
Juice of 1 orange
125g caster sugar
4 cloves
1 bay leaf

A good grating of nutmeg
25g flaked almonds
300ml marsala
125g Savoiardi biscuits
300ml whipping cream

Icing sugar, to taste
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
Dark chocolate, for grating

For the custard:
1 vanilla pod
300ml double cream
300ml whole milk
6 medium free-range egg yolks
100g caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour

Place the pears in a snug-fitting saucepan and pour over the wine so they are covered. Add the orange juice, cloves, sugar, bay leaf and nutmeg. Bring the pears up to a simmer and poach until tender.

Meanwhile, toast the flaked almonds over a medium heat in a dry frying pan until they are golden brown. Remove the pears from the liquor and allow them to cool.

Pour the marsala into a wide-based bowl and, taking one biscuit at a time, dunk them so that they soak up the marsala but not for so long that they fall apart. Lay them at the bottom of the serving dish. Cut the pears into quarters and remove the cores. Arrange the pears on top of the biscuits.

Now make the custard. Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife. Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan and drop in the vanilla seeds and the scraped-out pod. Place over a medium-low heat and bring up to a faint simmer.

In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together until smooth and thick. Tip the hot cream and milk into the eggs and sugar, whisking all the time, then pour the contents back into the saucepan. Remove the vanilla pod. Stir over a low heat until it starts to thicken.

Put the pan into a basin of cold water to cool; it needs to be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour it slowly and evenly over the pears and place in the fridge to set. Once the custard is set, add another layer of pears on top.

Whip the cream with the desired amount of icing sugar to sweeten and spoon over the pears. Scatter with toasted almonds. Finish by grating over the lemon zest followed by some grated dark chocolate.