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Vanilla Roasted Pears

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Recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Sally Schneider at The Atlantic

And how it tastes? Do I even need to tell you what happens when pear juices bubble with lemon, butter and vanilla bean-flecked sugar for an hour? Pear caramel is what happens. And how it smells? Good enough that the UPS guy stays too long.

Now, I consider this perfect right from the pan but the Schneider notes that it can be many, many things, from a sorbet to an accompaniment to a cheese plate to confit to serve with pork or ham. She’s probably right, but my batch will never last long enough to undergo a transformation.

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Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 vanilla bean
  • 1 1/2 pounds slightly-under-ripe, fragrant, medium pears, peeled if desired, halved though the stem and cored (I used Bosc but will be giving this recipe a spin with Bartlets later today; Schneider says all varieites work)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from smittenkitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place the sugar in a small bowl. With a thin, sharp knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half and scrape out the seeds. Stir the seeds into the sugar.

Arrange the pears in a large baking dish, cut-side up. Drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the fruit, then sprinkle with the sugar. Nestle the vanilla pod among the fruit (I first slit my halves lengthwise into quarters). Pour the water into the dish. Dot each pear with some butter.

Roast the pears 30 minutes brushing them occasionally with the pan juices. Turn the pears over and continue roasting, basting once or twice, until tender and caramelized, 25 to 30 minutes longer (if the pears are small, test for doneness after 35 or 40 minutes of cooking; a paring knife poked into the thickest part of one should meet with no resistance).

Serve warm, spooned with the caramelized pear drippings from the pan over ice cream, dolloped with crème fraîche, on your morning oatmeal, over slices of gingerbread or so so much more.

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