Roasted Pear Sauce

Encouraging Thoughts

I have decided to go back and rewrite some of my old recipes (Hopefully in these past 8 years I have learned to write recipes better.). Roasted pear sauce is a recipe I make every year so it is a perfect choice since this is my favorite and simplest way to make pear sauce (or apple for that matter). Please check out the notes below before making. There is also a recipe for Caramel Pear Sauce using the leftover juice. It is wonderful on pancakes, ice cream or fresh fruit!!

PS I have a rockin grain-free cake highlighting this sauce that I will be posting next week. Make sure to come check it out!

Roasted Pear Sauce

enough pears to fill a large baking pan w/ a lid (I used about a dozen) I like anjou

2 cinnamon sticks

2 vanilla beans, cut in half

4 whole anise

2 large slices of candied ginger or fresh ginger, cut into wide strips

½ cup sugar (I use coconut sugar), see notes

1 cup water

Pre-heat oven 250°F

Do not peel or core the pears. I cut pears into 1/4, leaving seeds, skin and all. I only remove the stem. Fill pan two thirds of the way and tuck whole spices in/around the pears. Then top with more pears. As many that will fin in your baking pan. Sprinkle sugar on top and then water. Cover with a heavy lid or foil. Roast one hour. Pull the pan put of the oven.Let the pears sit, covered for one hour.

Strain pears into a large bowl. Set the juice aside for caramel pear sauce. Remove all the whole spices except the candied ginger ad one vanilla bean for the caramel sauce. The ginger gets soft and mushy like the pears, so it can be run through the food mill. Process the pears through a food mill. I fill glass canning jars with a 2" header at the top (so when the sauce expands while it freezes, you have room and the jar will not break). Store jars in freezer. Since the sauce has almost no sugar, I am not sure if it would can well.

Caramel Pear Sauce

usally makes about 1/2 cup

juice from the pear sauce

vanilla bean from the pear sauce, cut open and scrap out the inside, add that to the pear juice. Discard the pod.

1-2 TBL butter

Set juice in a heavy sauce pan. Boil juice over high heat until it reduces by two thirds. Keep an eye on it. The sauce should be thicker and look for it to start smelling caramelly. Pull off heat and add 1 TBL of butter. If you want the sauce more buttery, add another TBL. Fill one or two small jars. Store in the refrigerator or freezer. Warm sauce berfore serving.

Notes

1. Ideal pears are ripe but NOT mushy. A bit firm is a good thing. I actually buy them hard and let them ripen, so I can pick the perfect time. I smell them. If they smell likes a pear then that is a good thing!

2. I have found every year, even though the use the same type??? of pears, some years they are sweeter, some years not. Some years they put out more juice, some years not. Since it is easier to add sugar than take it away, I go light handed. After I have cooked and ran the pears through the mill?? I taste it. This year’s batch really needed a bit more sugar and vanilla. So I threw the sauce in a big pot, gently heated it (did not boil it) add some more sugar and some vanilla extra. It was fine and not too sweet in the end.

3. Some years a add lemon peel too. Cut pieces about an inch wide. Try to only get the skin not the white pith. Tuck that in with the spices and throw them away after the pears have cooked.

4. Do not forget to keep the vanilla beans for the caramel sauce.