Pastry:

• 150 g castor sugar
• 140 g butter
• 2 small eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour

Filling:

• 700 g fresh pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• ½ c castor sugar
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• Finely grated rind of a lemon

Place the prepared pears in a pot or microwave with the sugar, cloves and rind and cook until tender. Drain the liquid and let the pears cool.

For the pastry, cream the butter and sugar then add the eggs and vanilla and beat again. Mix in the flour until it forms a slightly dry dough.

Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of a round non stick spring form cake tin, covering the base and about 4 cm up the sides. Fill with the pear mixture and then crumble the rest of the dough over the fruit. Bake for 30-35 mins at 200C until golden.

• 250 g of grated apple (leave the skin on)
• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• ¼ vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• ¾ c white or brown sugar
• 1 c each of white and wholemeal flours
• ½ c chopped walnuts
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 190C. Place the apple, yoghurt, oil and egg in a large bowl and mix to combine. Fold in the dry ingredients. (Don’t over mix or the muffins will be tough).

Put spoonfuls of the mixture into greased muffin pans and bake for about 12 minutes.