Poached Pear Pizza Food

POACHED PEAR PIZZA

Steps:

• Sift flour and salt together together in a bowl.
• Whisk egg and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
• Combine butter, white sugar, and 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg mixture. Add flour and salt gradually, beating until dough comes together.
• Turn dough out on a large piece of plastic wrap; wrap and chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; spread dough in an even layer on top.
• Bake in the preheated oven until center is firm and edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely.
• Whisk cream cheese, 1/4 confectioners' sugar, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Spread icing over the cooled crust.
• Cover icing with sliced pears, overlapping slices slightly.
• Combine 3 tablespoons brown sugar and red wine in a small saucepan over low heat; stir until brown sugar is dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes. Add cinnamon and ginger. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until reduced to a syrup, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Coat pear slices with syrup using a pastry brush. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar on top.
• Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.
• Broil pizza until brown sugar melts and browns, about 3 minutes. Grate fresh nutmeg over pizza; cut into squares.

VANILLA POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Place the white wine, water, sugar and vanilla bean and pulp into a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
• Core the pears from the bottom. Decrease the heat to medium low and place the pears into the liquid, cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the pears are tender but not falling apart. Maintain a gentle simmer. Remove the pears to a serving dish, standing them upright, and place in the refrigerator.
• Remove the vanilla bean from the saucepan, increase the heat to high and reduce the syrup to approximately 1 cup of liquid, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Do not allow the syrup to turn brown. Place the syrup in a heatproof container and place in the refrigerator until cool, approximately 1 hour.
• Remove the pears from the refrigerator, spoon the sauce over the pears and serve.

POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Combine the wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, star anise, clove, orange zest and vanilla bean in a deep pot and bring to a simmer. Add the pears, cover with a heatsafe plate (making sure that it fully submerges the fruit) and cook on low heat until you can pierce the pears easily with a knife, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Serve with whipped cream and ground cinnamon.

POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Combine all except pears in saucepan. Boil till sugar is dissolved then add pears.
• Cover and cook 8-10 minutes turning occasionally.
• When pears are barely tender remove from syrup and put in individual serving bowls.
• Boil remaining syrup rapidly uncovered until reduced to 1 cup. Pour over pears.
• Let cool before serving or serve chilled.

POACHED PEARS IN SPICED RED WINE

Steps:

• Halve the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the black seeds and put in a large saucepan with the wine, sugar, cinnamon and thyme. Cut each piece of pod into three long thin strips, add to pan, then lower in the pears.
• Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.
• Take the pears from the pan, then boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup, a strip of vanilla, a piece of cinnamon and a small thyme sprig.