Poached Fruit With Clove Granite And Cookies
- 2 750-milliliter bottles light dessert wine, like muscat canelli
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 12 cloves
- 10 firm Bartlett pears, peeled
- 2 cups dried Mission figs, stemmed
- 6 oranges
- 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- To poach the fruit, combine the wine, sugar and cloves in a large wide pot.
- Bring to a boil.
- Lower heat to a simmer and add the pears and figs.
- Simmer until pears are soft but not falling apart, about 15 to 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, use a paring knife to remove all peel and pith from the oranges.
- Cut the sections out from between the membranes.
- Add the sections and simmer 1 minute.
- Remove the fruit from the liquid with a slotted spoon, place in a bowl and let cool.
- Cover and refrigerate.
- Let the syrup stand until cool and strain into a shallow, nonreactive pan.
- Place in the freezer until firm throughout, stirring from time to time.
- (The granite can be made a day ahead.)
- To make the cookies, pulse the hazelnuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
- Add the flour, salt and sugar and process until nuts are ground and mixture is well mixed.
- Add the butter and pulse to combine.
- Add the egg and milk and process just until the dough begins to come together.
- Press the dough together and divide it in half.
- Shape into cylinders, about 1 3/4 inches in diameter.
- Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- If the dough is very cold, let stand at room temperature until firm but not too hard.
- Cut the dough across into 1/8-inch slices and place on the baking sheets about 1 inch apart.
- (Cookies must be baked in batches.)
- Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
- Cool.
- Melt the chocolate and dip half of each cookie in the chocolate.
- Set aside and let dry completely.
- To serve, arrange the pears, figs and oranges in 10 shallow bowls.
- Use a spoon to scrape the granite into mounds and place a mound in each bowl.
- Serve immediately, passing the cookies separately.
dessert wine, sugar, cloves, bartlett, mission figs, oranges, hazelnuts, flour, kosher salt, brown sugar, cold unsalted butter, egg, milk, bittersweet chocolate
Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/15 (may not work)