Roasted Pears
By: Joanne and Adam
Published: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 5:13am

Ingredients




4 semi-ripe Bosc pears
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet wine (we used Riesling)
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
For serving: ice cream or whipped cream

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 2 Quarter and core the pears, then place cut-side up (skin-side down) and dust them with powdered sugar. 3 Add the butter to an oven-safe Dutch oven or similar over medium-high heat.  Once the butter is melted, add the pears cut-side down to the pan and cook until browned for about 8-10 minutes.  Flip the pears skin-side up, add the wine, star anise and cinnamon stick  to the pan and place into the oven for 15-20 minutes.  The wine should reduce down to a syrup consistency and the pears will be tender. 4 Transfer the pears to a serving dish, drizzle with leftover syrup from the pan and top with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream.

About


Adam and I are not the biggest dessert eaters.  In fact, to be perfectly honest, we rarely bake or prepare desserts at home and almost never order them at a restaurant.  If we are ever in the mood for something sweet at the end of the meal, we usually just grab a chocolate bar (Adam goes for the dark chocolate and I the milk) and we are happy as can be.  With all of that said, we do as most people do, get cravings.  The most recent one was my influence.  For a few weeks now, I had been wanting to poach a pear.  I don’t really know why I was so infatuated with the concept of poaching a pear, it wasn’t like I had recently seen it in a magazine or on TV or even at a restaurant, but the feeling was overwhelming, so much so that I was finally able to convince Adam to drive to the store and purchase some absolutely beautiful Bosc pears so we could then quickly drive back home and poach.