Method

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Place the flour in a bowl. Cut the 125 g butter into chunks and rub it into the flour with your fingertips, lifting up handfuls of both and rubbing them between your fingers until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Stir in the cold water. Bring the dough together with both hands to form a ball. It may need a little more water, but the dough should be firm and not at all sticky. If it is, then add a little more flour. Try not to fiddle around with it too much as this will toughen it. Refrigerate the pastry while you prepare the fruit.

Melt the 2 Tbsp (30 ml) butter in a saucepan and add the Port wine and caramel sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add the pears and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes per side. Remove the pears from the sauce and set aside to cool.

When the pears have cooled, take the pastry out of the fridge and divide it into 6 equal parts. Roll out into rough circles. Sprinkle each circle with a little caramel sugar.  Place a pear in the middle of each. Fold the edges of the pastry up the sides of each pear, as far as it will go, about halfway up. Press the pastry so that it fits as snugly as possible around the pear. Brush the outside of each pastry shell with milk.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 40 minutes until the pastry is golden brown. To serve, heat the syrup and place the pears on individual plates. Drizzle each with some of the syrup and decorate with a sprig of thyme. Serve warm.