PEAR WITH AMARETTO LIQUEUR

Ingredients:

21/2 tablespoons butter
21/2 tablespoons sugar
4 ripe firm pears peeled and thickly sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoons grated lemon zest
¼ cup white wine
2 tablespoons Amaretto
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup crumbled amaretti biscuits



Directions:

Grease a shallow baking dish with a tablespoon of the butter. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of the sugar. Arrange the pear slices, slightly overlapping them to cover the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and zest. Pour the white wine and Amaretto evenly over the pears. Cut remaining butter into small pieces and evenly dot the pear slice with them.

In a small dish, stir together the remaining sugar and nutmeg. Sprinkle evenly over the pears then top with the crumbled amaretti biscuits.Roast the pears, in a 400F (200 C) oven basting 2 or 3 times with the pan juices until tender about 20 minutes.Divide pears among individual bowls and serve with icecream or custard.

BLUEBERRY SLICE

11/2 cups plain flour
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup grounded cashew nuts (or nuts of your choice)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
185g cold butter, chopped
125g cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
2 x 150g punnets blueberries
Icing-sugar mixture, to decorate

METHOD

Grease 19cm x 29cm rectangular slice pan.
Process flour, sugar, hazelnut meal and cinnamon until combined.
Add butter and process until mixture is crumbly. Press ¾ of mixture over the base of pan.
Press remaining mixture into a ball-shape. Cover and freeze until firm.
Cook base in moderate oven (180C) for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool in pan.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and orange rind in a bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Spread over base, then sprinkle with blueberries. Coarsely grate remaining frozen dough over top. (or you can crumble remaining dough over the top)
Cook in moderate oven (180C) for 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.
Stand slice in pan for 10 minutes before cutting.
Serve slice warm or cold dusted with icing-sugar mixture.