Small Pear Charlottes - cooking recipe

Ingredients

120 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 None ripe pears, peeled, quartered and cored
250 ml semi skimmed milk
1 None vanilla pod, cut in half and seeds scraped out
2 medium egg yolks
10 g plain flour
10 g cornflour
1-2 tbsp rum
10 g butter
32 None ladyfingers
1 None carambola, for decoration
None None silver sugar beads for decoration

Preparation

In a saucepan, bring 2/3 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla extract to a boil. Add the pears, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool in the syrup. When cooled, remove the pears from the syrup and cut into small cubes. Reserve the syrup and set aside.
In a separate pan, bring 3/4 cup milk and vanilla seeds to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Beat the egg yolks and remaining sugar together until creamy. Combine the flour, cornstarch, rum and 1/4 cup milk, then stir into the egg mixture. Add to the pan of milk and vanilla, bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes while stirring. Add the butter and stir until melted, then remove from heat and set aside.
Dip the ladyfingers into the pear syrup and line 4 serving glasses with them. Layer the glasses with the pears and custard, ending with a layer of custard, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 hours. Just before serving, garnish with freshly-sliced star fruit and silver sugar beads.