Salted caramel and pear pie

              

I realised I had some soy milk in the fridge that was about to go off. I don't like soy milk to drink but I like to cook with it. So I decided to make some caramel. Depending on thickness and how long you cook it, this recipe can make either a caramel sauce or more like a caramel custard or Dulce de leche. I wanted to use it as a pie filling so I opted for the latter. I want to make a tart using some tinned pears (as the fresh ones aren't quite ripe yet). But I realised I didn't have a pie dish or tins! I didn't want to use a cake tin as the square shapes were quite unwieldy and I didn't have quite enough filling for a galette. So I used an oven proof ceramic bowl. It doesn't look the prettiest as a result, but the taste is divine! I used a sweet shortcrust pastry but a biscuit base or even puff pastry would work really well.


                

To make salted caramel:
Ingredients

• 1 litre soy milk
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste, you can always add less and build up if you wish)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
2. Whisk well and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes. You want the mixture to bubble but not overflow or burn so you need to watch it carefully. 
3. Turn the heat down by half and cook for 2 hours or until the mixture has reduced by at least half and thickened. 

To make pastry:
Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 C) cold non dairy spread, diced
• 2-3 tbsp cold water

Directions

1. Sieve flour, sugar and salt to a bowl. 
2. Rub in spread untl the mixture resembled large crumbs.
3. Slowly add the cold water until the dough just comes together into a ball. 
4. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for a minimum of one hour before use.
5. After refridgeration, roll out pastry and place in pie tin or small pie cases. 
6. Pin prick the bottom/s and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.

To assemble pie:

             

1. Warm caramel in a saucepan or microwave until pourable but not boiling.
2. Pour into pie case.
3. Arrange tinned or fresh pears on top
4. Brush pie edges and top with soy milk
5. Place in a 180c oven for 40mins or until pastry is cooked. 
6. Allow to cool and remove from pie case.