Baked Pears and Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel ripe pears and cut them in half, leaving the seeds.
Pack the pears in layers in a stone jar, sprinkling each layer with sugar and a pinch of nutmeg.
Add a small cup of water to the bottom of the jar to prevent burning.
Bake and chill
Cover the jar and place it in a moderate oven.
Bake for three hours, then leave the jar unopened in the oven all night.
Remove the jar and set it on ice for several hours before serving.
Serve
Pour the pears into a glass dish and serve with cream.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Pears (in the method)
- Provide the fruit that softens and turns tender and sweet during long, gentle baking.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Adds sweetness and helps the pears caramelise slightly as they bake.
- Cream (in the method)
- Adds richness and a cool, smooth contrast to the warm-spiced pears.
The step that matters
Long, covered baking in a moderate oven. Covering the jar with a little water traps steam, so the pears cook gently and soften evenly without scorching. Leaving the jar in the oven overnight lets the pears finish cooking slowly as the oven cools.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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