My mom can go a little crazy sometimes. Like when we go to the Amish produce stand and they have pears for 30 cents a pound, so she buys 30 pounds. Twice. So we now have 60 pounds of pears vegging out in our basement. Not that I’m complaining, of course. I love to cook with local fruits, but of course have to get to them before Julia eats them all (she looooooves pears). Mom has already canned some of the pears, but every day I keep thinking to myself, Baked pears just sound amazing. So I made them for lunch today with amazing results! (Don’t worry, that’s not all I ate for lunch, although it wouldn’t be to hard to down a whole batch!) These are better than pear crisp, way easier, and way fancier. And I love that they are fruit sweetened with only 1 teaspoon of local maple syrup! You’ve got to try this one!
- ripe pears – 2
- Filling:
- whole raw almonds – 1/4 cup
- raw pecans – 1/4 cup
- dried cranberries – 2 tablespoons
- ground cinnamon – 1 teaspoon
- ground nutmeg – 1/4 teaspoon
- coconut oil – 1 tablespoon, melted
- pure maple syrup – 1 teaspoon
- Syrup:
- unsweetened apple juice – 1/4 cup
- butter – 2 tablespoons
- ground cinnamon – 1/2 teaspoon
- Cut the pears lengthwise in half and use a melon scoop, cookie scoop, or sturdy spoon to remove the cores. 2. Place in a 8×8 baking dish. 3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 4. In a mini food processor, combine all filling ingredients and process until finely chopped and mixed. Evenly scoop with filling into the hollowed-out pears. 5. Combine the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Pour half the syrup mixture over the pears. 6. Bake the pears for 25 minutes. 7. Serve the pears warm with a drizzle of the remaining syrup.
