Still had some ganache left over in the freezer from the wedding cake, so these seemed like a good idea. Very pleasant they are too. The biscuits are fairly crumbly when you bite them, and they use peanut butter, giving them a slight saltiness, which contrasts nicely with the richness of the ganache.

They’re from a series of biscuit recipes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did in the Guardian Weekend magazine. All the recipes can be found here, but here’s this one in particular. It includes a recipe for ganache:

For the biscuits
240g plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
180g butter
140g smooth peanut butter
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
For the ganache filling
100g double cream
200g dark chocolate
30g butter, softened

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until smooth, then stir in the flour until well combined. Pat into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour or two to firm up, as this is quite a soft dough.

Heat the oven to 170C. Line baking sheets with parchment (you may need to bake these in batches).

Lightly dust a work surface with flour, and pin out the dough to about 4-5mm thick. Cut into circles with a 5cm plain biscuit cutter. Place on the baking sheets about 2cm apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes, until the edges are slightly darkened. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Ganache: In a small pan, gently heat the cream until bubbles appear at the edges. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over, stirring to blend, then add the butter a bit at a time, stirring until the mixture is smooth.

Leave to thicken slightly (can speed this up by putting it in the fridge), then pipe or spread the ganache on to half the biscuits, and sandwich together.

This is one of those fairly ordinary but rather delicious puds, and probably something of a classic. Pear and almond is certainly a great combo, up there with pear and ginger. (Lots of pears from our tree recently, hence the theme.)

The recipe I was used a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall one from the Guardian. Here.

We had a handful of blueberries knocking around in the fridge, so while caramelising the pears in butter and sugar I bunged them in too. Not half bad.

This one was really very nice indeed. Very moist from a combo of ground almonds and drizzling with honey when you get it out of the oven. And do try to support your local, small-scale honey producers, as times is hard and getting harder for beekeepers. I learned a little about the difficulties they face from some beekeepers I know in New Zealand, but I learned more when I interviewed the chairman of the London Beekeepers’ Association for Channel4 Food.

The only thing I would say is that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe in the Guardian said 160C for 45 minutes. Well, I did it in a fan over at 140 (normally I’d reduce the heat for a fan oven) and in 45 minutes it was barely cooked at all. I did use a slightly smaller tin than he said (ie making the mixture deeper for cooking through) but it still seems a bit off. Depending on your oven, you may need to bump up the heat somewhat and leave it in for longer.

Here’s the recipe.

PS – Jo and Lawrence, stick up that b’day cake you made for me when you get a moment as it was yummy and I want the recipe!