A tempting dessert choice that will leave you wanting another slice. Serve with fresh cream or ice cream for a taste explosion.
Ingredients
4 pears, peeled and quartered
100g sultanas
1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves
100g soft brown sugar
1 cup water
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup castor sugar
275g ready-made filo pastry
1 small lemon, juice only
75g butter, melted
50g flaked almonds-toasted
1 tbsp icing sugar
Extra tips
Dust with extra icing sugar
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Place the water, sugar and early grey leaves into a saucepan and bring gently to the boil. Add the pears and simmer for about 20 minutes or until cooked. Set aside to cool.
Prepare the filo pastry for the strudel by laying the first sheet on a work surface lined with baking paper. Using a pastry brush, brush the sheet with the melted butter and over-lap another sheet on top to form a rectangle about 40cm x 30cm. Continue to do this using the melted butter and filo sheets until all the sheets are used. Reserve a little melted butter for the final glaze.
In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon and sultanas. Dice the cooked pears and add to the sugar mixture, mixing well. Sprinkle the pear mixture on to the filo pastry rectangle, leaving 2.5cm free at the edges.
Fold the free edges of the long side of the rectangle over the pear mixture and starting at one end of the shorter side, start rolling up the filo pastry to form a swiss roll.
Transfer to a baking tray and brush with the remaining melted butter then dust liberally with the icing sugar. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until crisp and golden brown. Sprinkle over the toasted almonds before serving.
