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Keeping It Clean

The holidays are over! The Cookie Lady has put the cookie cutters and rolling pins (yes, more than one, you should see the red silicone rolling pin!) away and, of course, we are once again swimming in gorgeous pears. Here is a great dessert that is both braces friendly and good for dessert lovers who cannot tolerate flour.

Happy Sweet New Year from Dr. M and the Cookie Lady!

As always, please read the entire recipe before you start.

Place in an oven proof pan, cast iron is great:

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• ½ c. honey
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar, light or dark
• ¼ tsp. salt

Bring this mixture to a boil and cook for 2 minutes.

Prepare the pears

Meanwhile halve pears by cutting them lengthwise, using as many as will fit snugly in your pan. Remove the core and seeds with a melon baller or spoon. Place pears cut side down in the syrup and cook 2 minutes, shaking the pan so the pears do not stick.

Turn the pears cut side up and add to the pan:

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. lemon juice

Spoon the syrup over the pears. Place in preheated 350 ° oven for about 10 to 12 minutes.

The source for this recipe suggested serving the pears with the following as a topping

• 8 oz. heavy cream whipped stiff, then stir in
• 2 tsp. honey
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 3/4 c. plain Greek yogurt

In the absence of those ingredients, we liked a large dollop of vanilla ice cream.

The pears are most easily served in dessert bowls with a generous amount of the syrup and sauce or ice cream. The warm pears and cold cream...well, what's not to love!

Serves: however many people as number of pears that you can fit in your baking pan.

Notes:

1. Use any pears you have handy.
2. You could use real maple syrup instead of honey.
3. You can bake the pears ahead and reheat them in the syrup just before serving.
4. If you really cannot live without chocolate in your dessert, you could serve this with a good hot fudge sauce on the side or you can sprinkle the vanilla ice cream with grated dark chocolate.

A Cookie Lady Recipe