Matt Golinski’s Mead Poached Pear, Roasted Almond Semifreddo & Thyme Crostoli with Hum Honeycomb

Hum Honey has been blessed with Matt Golinski creating some absolutely divine recipes using our Hum Honey range.  This recipe uses both our Hum Honey and Hum Honeycomb! A fabulous dessert that is perfect for any occasion. Thank you Matt.  This recipe is sensational!

You can purchase our Hum Honey & Honeycomb here.

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

For the Semifreddo:
100ml milk
75gm castor sugar
50gm Hum Honey
3 egg yolks
500ml thickened cream, whipped
100gm flaked almonds, roasted and crushed

For the pears:
2 buerre bosc or packham pears
250ml honey mead
½ cup castor sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves

For the Crostoli:
100gm plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
10ml olive oil
1 egg
15ml mead
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
400ml vegetable oil
2 tbs icing sugar

To serve:
80gm Hum Honeycomb
30gm slivered almonds, toasted
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Method:

To make the semifreddo, place the milk, sugar and Hum Honey into a small saucepan and warm over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Whisk the egg yolks until light and pale, increase the heat of the milk until it just boils and whisk slowly into the yolks. Continue to whisk until the mixture is light and comes down to room temperature.

Whip the cream and fold through the egg mixture.

Fold in the crushed almonds and pour the mixture into a 25 x 18cm tray lined with baking paper. Freeze overnight.

 

To poach the pears, put the mead, sugar, cinnamon and cloves in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil.

Peel, halve and core the pears and add to the mead syrup. Simmer for 5 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the pears to cool down in the liquid.

Remove the pear halves and reduce the cooking liquid to approximately 100ml.

 

For the crostoli, mix together the flour, baking powder, olive oil, mead, egg and thyme and work into a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle 30cm x 15cm. Fold in half and re-roll to the same size. Repeat this process another 4 times.

Cut the dough into 5mm wide strips and deep fry in the vegetable oil until golden. Drain on absorbent paper and when cool dust with icing sugar.

 

Cut the semifreddo into 8cm squares.

Divide the reduced poaching liquid between 4 plates, and arrange the semifreddo, pears and crostoli on top.

Garnish with pieces of the Hum Honeycomb, almond flakes and thyme leaves.