Honey Pear Cupcake with White Chocolate Pistachio Buttercream - In the Bag

It's the first In the Bag of the year hosted by A slice of cherry pie.

What's in the bag for January?

Pear
Lemon
And a selection of nuts





I chose to poach the pear in honey before adding it to the cupcake batter as well as putting a slice of poached pear on top of the batter itself.

I chose pistachio because pistachio goes with everything.

So here is my In the Bag recipe for this month - Honey Pear Cupcake with White Chocolate Pistachio Buttercream (yes it has a hint of lemon in it). I loved the flecks of pistachio in the buttercream.

As my friend who had 4 cupcakes all by himself today said, they are f*cking great cupcakes.





Honey Poached Pear

1/4 cup honey
1 2/3 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
2 large pears (Bartlett is a great variety)

1. Combine 3 cups water, honey and sugar in a large saucepan.
2. Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and add to saucepan.
3. Bring mixture to the boil and lower heat. Simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.
4. Add the pears to the mixture and continue to simmer for 20 minutes or until the pears are tender.
5. Remove the saucepan off the heat and strain the pears into a large bowl.
6. Pour the honey mixture over the pears and allow to cool before placing in refrigerator.





Honey Pear Cupcake

125g / 1/2 cup butter
1 honey poached pear, mashed
1 honey poached pear, sliced
1/2 cup syrup from poached pear
1 2/3 cup self raising flour
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 180 (350).
2. Line a 12 capacity muffin tray with cupcake liners.
3. Cream butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition.
5. Alternately beat in the flour and the honey syrup in three lots.
6. Fold in the mashed pear.
7. Evenly divide the cupcake batter into the cupcake liners and place a slice of the honey poached pear on top of the batter.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
9. Allow to cool completely before frosting.


Makes 12





White Chocolate Pistachio Buttercream

150g / 5 oz white chocolate, melted
1/4 cup pistachios
125g / 1 /2 cup butter
2 cups icing [powdered] sugar
1 tsp lemon zest, grated
1 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs milk (more or less depending on consistency of the buttercream)

1. Grind the pistachios with 1 tablespoon of icing sugar in a food processor. You can have the pistachios as fine or as coarse as you like.
2. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. Add the lemon zest and the ground pistachios and beat until combined.
5. Add the icing sugar, lemon juice and the melted white chocolate.
6. Beat the buttercream for 3 - 5 minutes, adding the milk until you achieve the consistency you want.