Pear and Strawberry Bake

I am incredibly tired. This is probably because I was up until 2:30 watching Murray give the performance of his life. I was so glad he won. He totally deserves it. I should get a medal too for getting through the day on four hours sleep.

On the subject of the Olympics, the Australian coverage has been receiving a lot of criticism lately. This is the first time I am really going to express my opinion about something and I think this is worthy of my opinion. I really hate how everyone in Australia says we are 'underperforming' and it's a disappointment to get a silver medal. Since when has being 2nd out of 2 billion people disappointing? As far as I'm aware, there are far less people without medals at all then there are those with them. It just makes me angry that everyone is hating on Magnussen, Sullivan, Watt and the Awesome Foursome for getting second. We are a much smaller country than the others, with less people, less finances and we dont pour money into our sport - we actually are amateurs. The media seems to be forgetting that in sport, sometimes we win, sometimes we don't. It's like a cycle. 

And besides, we have seen some of the most amazing sport ever - look at Jessica Ennis, Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Andy Murray - we should be celebrating this, regardless of their country of origin. 

Now onto a much happier subject - food. I made this twice last week, and both times it was absolutely fantastic. It is incredibly delicious, and it may seem like a lot of calories, but when you think about it, it's all delicious fruit, with some dark chocolate and oats. All perfectly healthy food in moderation. Besides, nothing beats melting chocolate, warm pear, roasted strawberries and cold yoghurt. I mean, it's just amazing.

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Average Cost: $

Occasion: Dessert, but would also make a great snack or a slightly naughty late breakfast/brunch treat.

Menu Options: You can change the fruit in here to whatever you feel like. Peaches and banana would be what I would swap the pear for. Perhaps even apple. I would recommend keeping the strawberries and chocolate in, as that is undoubtedly the best part, but feel free to change the pears for other fruits. I would love to try this with peaches. Of course, use whatever milk you have – low fat, almond, etc. You don’t need the passionfruit; I was just really craving this mix when I developed the recipe. Of course you can swap the yoghurt for ice cream or custard, but nothing beats sweet yoghurt and freshly baked fruit – it’s healthier too! Also, I recommend using 70% cocoa chips, or the darkest chocolate chips you can buy – always tastes better baked in my opinion.

Serves 4. Nutritional stats calculated without yoghurt/ice cream/custard, etc.

What you need:

-          3 pears

-          250 g strawberries

-          3/4 - 1 cup dark chocolate chips (bittersweet)

-          1/4 cup milk

-          3/4 cup oats

-          1/4 cup oats, to cover mixture with

-          4 passion fruit

-          Yoghurt, to serve

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Peel and core the pears and cut into small cubes. Place the pear in a bowl and attempt to mash - it does not matter if you cannot mash the pear completely , as long as the pears are cut in small cubes.

Cut the tops off the strawberries and dice finely. Place in bowl with pears. Add choc chips, milk and 3/4 cup oats to the mixture. Stir well with a wooden spoon. The mixture will look messy and there may seem like there is a lot of liquid. This is fine.

Divide the mixture among four ramekins. Divide the 1/4 cup oats amongst the ramekins and cover each ramekin with the oats.

Bake the mixture for 20 minutes or until the oats are a brown/golden colour and the mixture is bubbling below the oats.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes. Top each ramekin with passionfruit pulp from one passionfruit. Serve with yoghurt or ice cream - though I prefer yoghurt.