Baked Pears With Currants And Cinnamon Food

BAKED PEARS WITH CURRANTS AND CINNAMON

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Using apple corer, cut through stem of each pear and all the way through pear to base to remove core. Trim bottoms so that pears stand straight. Arrange pears in 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish. Combine sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add currants. Fill pear cavities with half of sugar mixture. Stir cup water into remaining sugar mixture; pour around pears. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)
• Bake pears uncovered until tender and sauce is syrupy, adding more water to dish by 1/4 cupfuls if syrup becomes too thick and basting occasionally, about 50 minutes. Serve pears warm with syrup.

GINGERED PEAR AND CURRANT BREADS

Steps:

• Into a bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the cinnamon. In a small bowl toss together the pears and the lemon juice. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter with the brown sugar and beat in the vanilla and the eggs, 1 at a time. Add the ginger and the pear mixture and beat the mixture until it is combined well. Beat in the flour mixture and beat the mixture until it is just combined. Stir in the currants, divide the batter among 4 buttered and floured loaf pans, each 5 3/4 by 3 1/4 by 2 inches, and bake the breads in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until they are pale golden and a tester comes out clean. Remove the breads from the pans and let them cool, right sides up, on a rack. The breads keep, wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil, chilled for 1 week or frozen for 1 month.

BAKED PEARS WITH ORANGE CINNAMON SAUCE

Steps:

• Core and halve the pears.
• Place them face down in a greased baking dish.
• Whisk together the orange juice, cornstarch, cinnamon, cloves, sugar and water.
• Pour over the pears.
• Sprinkle over the raisins.
• Cover the baking dish with aluminium foil and bake in a 425 F or 220 C oven for 25 minutes.
• This is the time needed to bake fairly hard pears, so if yours are soft you may be able to take them out after 10-15 minutes.
• Take the dish out of the oven.
• Using a spoon, scoop up any juice on the bottom of the pan and drizzle it over the pears.
• Sprinkle over the brown sugar.
• Turn on the top element of the oven and put the pears back in the oven for a couple minutes until they start to brown on top.
• Remove from the oven.
• Divide between two bowls and serve topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

BAKED PEARS

Steps:

• Core pears but do not peel.
• Place in greased 9" square pan.
• Combine oats, sugar, spices and butter until crumbly.
• Stuff pears letting excess fall into pan.
• Pour 3/4 cup apple juice into pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, basting after 30 minutes. Add more juice if necessary.
• Cool 30 minutes before serving.

CREAMY BAKED PEARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar into buttered dish.
• Rub remaining 1 tablespoon butter over pear halves; arrange pears cut sides down in prepared baking dish and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
• Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Pour cream over pears and continue baking until tender, about 20 minutes more.