Beetroot Pear with Goat Cheese on Lettuce and Fresh Baguette

For beetroot pears, cheese and salad:

1. The day before, for the beetroot pears, caramelize 40 g of sugar in a small saucepan, top up with wine and beetroot juice. Add pepper, clove, star anise, bay leaf, vinegar and fleur de sel and cook over mild to medium heat.
2. Peel the pears, place them in the beetroot stock and cook over a medium heat for 30–40 minutes. Then remove from the heat and let the pears steep in the brew for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
3. Remove the pears from the brew and cover with cling film. Pour the stock through a sieve into a saucepan and boil down to approx. 100 ml in a syrupy manner over medium heat, can take up to 4 hours here. Let the beetroot syrup cool down.
4. Finely chop the walnuts, fry them briefly in a pan without fat and allow to cool. Strip off the thyme leaves, coarsely chop and mix with the orange peel and walnuts.
5. Roughly chop the pumpkin seeds and place on a plate. Halve the goat cheese horizontally, place the cut surface on the pumpkin seeds and press lightly. Place the goat cheese close together on a plate with the pumpkin seed side up. Caramelize the remaining sugar in a small saucepan until light brown. Using a tablespoon, run the caramel in thin threads over the pumpkin seeds. Let cool down.
6. Halve the pears lengthways, arrange on small plates with goat cheese and lettuce. Sprinkle with the walnut topping and drizzle with 1–2 tablespoons of beetroot syrup. Serve immediately. (Source: Eating and Drinking)

For the baguette:

1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Mix the flour and salt together and then stir everything together with a wooden spoon (otherwise the dough is too sticky). You shouldn’t work the dough for too long. Shape a ball, dust with flour, cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 20 minutes.
2. Then let the dough rise for 1 hour. During this time, fold the dough 3 times, i.e. every 20 minutes. Spread out the dough in a square and fold each corner once to the middle so that the dough gets a lot of air. Turn this package over and let rise again for 20 minutes.
3. After this hour, shape the baguettes. Cut each baguette diagonally several times with a sharp knife, then moisten it lightly with water and finally sprinkle it with a little flour so that a nice crust can form. Now put the fan in the oven for another 20 minutes at 220 ° C. Important: put a tray with water in the lower area of ​​the oven.