Caramelised pears

Serves:

Ingredients

• 6 pears, peeled and sliced
• 60g butter
• ¾ cup caster sugar or brown sugar

Method

In a heavy frying pan, heat the butter over a medium heat until bubbling and add the pears. Sauté until lightly golden and add the sugar.

Stir constantly until the sugar caramelises and the pears are soft.

Notes:

• If you are going to use these for a pie, you can thicken the caramel by adding 1 tablespoon of cornflour into ½ cup cold apple juice and stir into the caramelised pears while in the pan. Bring this to the boil and simmer until the sauce is thick and glossy in appearance.
• For a delicious variation, you can stir the scrapings from a vanilla pod into the caramel.
• For a quick dessert, you can fill warmed ready-made pastry shells with these pears and top with a dollop of double cream.
• To make spicy pears, you can add some ½ tsp of cinnamon and ½ tsp of nutmeg.
• Dark brown sugar will give you a very deep brown caramel with burnished flavours, while caster sugar gives you a glossy clear caramel.
• If you store the leftover pears in the fridge, the carmel changes to a solid mass and returns to a glossy liquid when heated.
• This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

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Serving Suggestions

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