Slice Ingredients:
100g butter softened
100g brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs (Agreeable Nature)
60g flour
120g ground almonds (NZ nuts)
2 pears (Ettrick Gardens, Willowbrook Orchard)
½ tsp baking powder
Handful of sliced almonds (NZ nuts)
Custard Ingredients:
1 ½ cups milk (Holy Cow)
4 egg yolks (Agreeable Nature)
2 Tbsp plain flour
½ vanilla pod or 1 tsp extract
Pinch salt
2/3 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup wildflower honey (Blueskin Bay Honey)
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease a loose bottom, fluted, rectangle 34x12cm tart tin. In a food processor, place all of the slice ingredients except pears and process until just combined. Spread the mix evenly across the base of the tart tin. Wash, slice and core the pears into thin wedges and arrange on top of almond mix. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the slice is almost cooked. Remove and sprinkle over the sliced almonds before returning it to the oven and cooking for a further 5 minutes until the almonds are nice and golden brown. Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin. While the slice is cooking, make the custard
Gently heat the milk with the honey and vanilla (scrape the seeds and also add the pod if using) in a pot. Beat the egg yolks with the cinnamon and flour until smooth and creamy. Pour the warmed milk over the egg yolks in a slow and steady stream whilst whisking continuously. Once all of the milk is added, strain the custard back in to the pot and heat on a low-moderate heat, whisking continuously until thickened. Remove from the heat and serve with the warm pear slice.
