Roasted Pears And Dried Fruit Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Wash lemon and remove peel with a knife, trying to keep it in one long string. Squeeze juice from 1/2 of the lemon into a small saucepan. Add honey, cinnamon stick, and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until fragrant and syrupy, about 5 minutes.
• Arrange pears, core-sides up, in a tagine. Add prunes, apricots, almonds, and lemon peel around the pears and on top if necessary. Pour lemon juice mixture over top allowing cinnamon stick and vanilla bean halves to fall into the tagine. Cover.
• Cook in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and take off the cover, allowing any condensation to fall back into the tagine. Turn pears over and add pine nuts. Replace the cover and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the oven off, and allow the tagine to sit in the hot oven until sauce thickens a bit, about 10 minutes. Serve.

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack too middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 1½ Tablespoon butter in oven safe 12 inch skillet on medium-high heat. Place pear halves, cut side down in skillet. Cook, without moving them until pears are just beginning to brown, 3-5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and roast pears for 15 minutes. Using tongs, flip pears and continue to roast until tender, 10-15 minutes longer Using tongs, transfer pears to platter. Return skillet to medium-high heat and add wine, apricots, sugar, cardamom, salt and remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Bring to simmer, whisking up any browned bits. Cook until sauce is the consistency of maple syrup, 7-10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in lemon juice. Pour sauce over pears, sprinkle with pistachios, and serve.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, whisk together apple cider, 2 tablespoons sugar, and butter. Add pears, dried cherries, prunes, and lemon zest and juice; toss to combine.
• Cover with aluminum foil, and bake 15 minutes; remove foil and continue to bake, tossing once, until fruit is tender and beginning to brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.
• In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and remaining tablespoon sugar. Serve warm, or at room temperature, with sweetened sour cream.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Peel the pears and slice them lengthwise into halves. With a small sharp paring knife and a melon baller, remove the core and seeds from each pear, leaving a round well for the filling. Trim a small slice away from the rounded sides of each pear half so that they will sit in the baking dish without wobbling. Toss the pears with some lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. Arrange them, core side up, in a baking dish large enough to hold the pears snugly.
• Gently toss the crumbled blue cheese, dried cranberries, and walnuts together in a small bowl. Divide the mixture among the pears, mounding it on top of the indentation.
• In the same small bowl, combine the apple cider, port, and brown sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour the mixture over and around the pears. Bake the pears, basting occasionally with the cider mixture, for 30 minutes, or until tender. Set aside until warm or at room temperature.
• Just before serving, whisk together the olive oil, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and 1/4 cup of the basting liquid in a large bowl. Divide the arugula among 6 plates and top each with a pear half. Drizzle each pear with some of the basting liquid, sprinkle with salt, and serve warm.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Arrange the pears, cut sides up, on a baking sheet and dot with butter. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the pears are just tender. Let cool.
• Increase the oven heat to 450 degrees F.
• Sprinkle the counter and a rolling pin lightly with flour. Roll the dough out to a 14-inch round, about 1/4-inch thick. It doesn't have to be perfect. Transfer the dough to the back of a lightly floured baking sheet. Slice the pears and arrange them on the dough round by overlapping the slices in a spiral fashion, leaving a 2-inch border all around. Drizzle with the honey, scatter blue cheese over the top, and sprinkle with the almonds.
• Brush the border with the egg wash. Bring the edge of crust over onto the filling, leaving the fruit exposed in center. Gently fold and pinch the dough to seal any cracks. Brush the crust with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar. Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is tender. Slide a knife under the crostata to loosen it from the pan. Then cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.
• Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and ice water and work that in with your hands. (Or do the whole thing in a food processor, pulsing a couple of times to combine the dry ingredients, then pulsing in the butter, and then the egg.) Check the consistency of the dough by squeezing a small amount together between thumb and forefingers: You want there to be just enough moisture to bind the dough so that it holds together without being too wet or sticky. If it's still crumbly, add a little more ice water, 1 teaspoon at a time. When you get it to the right consistency, shape the dough into a disk and wrap it in plastic. Put it in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 225 degrees. Line a pan with parchment. Cut each pear lengthwise into 1/8- to 1/4- inch-thick slices. Remove seeds and fibrous bits from each slice; arrange on pan, spaced 1/2 to 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with sugar.
• Transfer to oven; dry until pears become firmer, slightly chewy, and shriveled around edges, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. Transfer to a wire rack. Store in an airtight container, refrigerated, up to 2 days or frozen, up to 6 weeks.