Caramel Roasted Pears

Photo: Cat

Ingredients

4 firm ripe pears

1 dessertspoon lemon juice

10 ounces (275 g) caster sugar

6 fl.oz (175 ml) water

1 cinnamon stick (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ounce (25 g) butter

Note- The cinnamon is listed as optional because I liked the idea enough to use it, but found that it di

Preparation

Preheat the oven to Gas 2 (150C).

Peel the fruit, leaving the stalks, core and seed intact to help the fruit keep its shape during the long cooking time.

Put the fruit in a large bowl and add the lemon juice to prevent browning. Add enough cold water just to cover while you make the caramel.

In a heavy-based saucepan, heat the sugar and water over a high heat.

Stir until the sugar has dissolved and you can no longer feel the granules in the water.

Add the cinnamon stick.

Now, WITHOUT stirring, bring it to the boil. DO NOT STIR, but instead occasionally swirl the syrup around the pan to spread the developing colour evenly.

Continue cooking and swirling until the syrup turns lightly golden and smells like toffee. This will take around seven minutes. Do not overdo this stage or the caramel WILL burn. You may think at first that you can only smell cinnamon, but do not fear, eventually you WILL be able to smell toffee. When this happens take the pan off the heat and add the vanilla and butter, stirring until the butter has melted.

Take the fruit from the water and place the halves cut-side down in a baking dish or tray.

Pour over the caramel and put into the oven.

Note- A metal tray will give a better colour to the finished pears than a ceramic dish because of its superior heat conductive properties.

If your caramel has started to set, it will soon turn liquid again in the oven. Even if it goes to the extreme of turning into a white fluffy grainy ever-expanding mess as mine did at first, then DON'T PANIC! I was a little shocked at first by this strange un-caramel like behaviour but I made a quick recovery and scraped this mess over the pears anyway. Adding a drop of water before squishing all the quickly-hardening white lumps down a bit and putting it in the oven seemed to do the trick, and it did, with a little more squishing, revert to its former golden glory in a relatively short time.

This now needs to cook for around four hours, basting with the caramel every thirty minutes or so.

When they are done, the pears should be tender, the same colour all the way through, and almost translucent.