Don’t ask me why Saturday night is dessert night in our home, rather than say Wednesday or Monday…because I don’t know.

Last night we had one of my favourite desserts: pear and coconut crumble. It’s quick and easy to make, and tastes gorgeous!

I first wrote about this dessert in my novel, Bluey’s Café:

Home alone on Saturday night, instead of crawling into bed or watching late-night TV, Bluey headed to the kitchen. A small hessian sackful of ripe pears were begging for her to take notice of them. She peeled half a dozen, and sliced their tender juicy flesh in half, laying them in a pan with coconut oil and brown sugar. They began simmering. Their buttery and gritty flesh was perfect for a crumble. Coconut cream swirled around the pears, and a sprinkling of ground ginger dusted the top.

Bluey loved cooking with coconut, and always found it lent an erotic edge to her recipes, not to mention that it reminded her of Cole Hadden, a dashing young English businessmen who had taken her to dinner while in Jamaica several years ago. His kisses tasted like coconut with a hint of cinnamon and Caribbean sunshine. She could never look at coconuts in the same way again.

Serves four to six

4-6 large ripe pears
30g coconut oil (or margarine)
50g coconut sugar (or other unrefined sugar) or maple syrup
Juice of half a lemon
500ml coconut cream
Dusting of ground ginger

Crumble:
85g solid coconut oil (or margarine, but coconut is better)
100g coconut sugar (or other unrefined sugar)
2 cups jumbo oats
1/3 cup desiccated coconut
100g 80% dark chocolate, broken into pieces (ginger chocolate is especially good!)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel the pears, cut in half and remove the stalks and seeds. Drizzle with lemon juice to stop browning.

Melt coconut oil (or margarine) in a pan, and add the pear halves. Add the sugar, and allow to caramelise.

After about fifteen minutes, add the coconut cream. Place the contents into a casserole dish. It will look like there’s too much liquid, but don’t worry, as it will be absorbed by the crumble.

Make the crumble. I prefer not to use flour in my crumble as I’m gluten free, but if you’d like it, use about 80g flour, and half the amount of oats. Rub the oil or margarine into the oats. Add the sugar and desiccated coconut. Add the pieces of chocolate and mix well. Place the mixture onto the top of the pears. Bake for 45 minutes.

Serve with soya cream or soya ice cream.