In her search for the perfect pear recipe, Diana Mieczan just might have succeeded.
By Diana Mieczan

The crisp-cold weather is definitely here and for some reason I crave warm and filling desserts. So on my recent trip to the farmers’ market I picked up a few ravishing pears that smelled oh-so delightful. In search for the perfect pear recipe, I discovered two that I loved. So what a girl to do?

I combined them into one and voilà! Here is my take on roasted pears with two of my loves: the delicious maple syrup and scrumptious vanilla. Doesn’t that sound like a perfect pairing?

The key to this being an awesome autumn treat is that the sweetness of maple syrup shouldn’t overwhelm the natural sourness of pears and the combination of the two should allow the vanilla to shine through as well.

The whole thing turned out better than I anticipated and honestly saying, it felt a bit fancy which made me think, that it could make a wonderful dinner party treat.

I also read that roasted pears go great with proscuitto de Parma or serrano ham; as an accompaniment for Thanksgiving turkey instead of cranberry sauce or even as a side dish to roasted chicken, pork or ham. Can’t wait to experiment more. I’ll keep you posted, but for now, enjoy!

(Big thanks to Deb – Smitten Kitchen and Natalie – The SoHo for the inspiration)

Maple and Vanilla Roasted Pears

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4 from 1 review

Author: Diana Mieczan
Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 4 1x

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Description

Perfect autumn dessert adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Sweet Paul Magazine.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 cup maple syrup
1 vanilla bean
1 1/2 pounds (or 6 smaller or 4 larger) pears
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoon (or 28 grams) unsalted butter
a bit of brown sugar (for the topping)

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). In a small bowl mix the maple syrup and water. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise in half with a sharp knife and scrape out the seeds into the maple-water mix. Peel the pears (if you want to) and half them. Place them in a baking dish. Drizzle the lemon juice evenly over the fruit, along with the maple-water mix. Place the empty vanilla pod among the fruit and dot each pear with a bit of butter.
Roast the pears for 20 minutes, brushing them occasionally with the juice. Then turn them over and continue roasting for another 20 minutes, repeatedly brushing the pears with the juice until tender and caramelized. Poke the thieckest part with a sharp knife and if you don’t feel any resistance, your pears are done.