Pear delight

Well, it seems autumn is already here and I'm not sure if I'm sad because summer's over or happy for all the baking days ahead. Either way, I have decided to bake this pear delight and celebrate.

Start by preparing the pears:

6 pears

750 ml water

300 g sugar. If you have tasted the pears and find them particularly sweet, feel free to reduce the amount of sugar to 250 or even 200 grams.

lemon zest to taste

5 g cinnamon - if you are a fan. If you aren't, well, who am I to judge?

seeds from 1 cardamom pod. Lightly crush the cardamom pod under the knife blade until the outer husk cracks. Use the mortar and pestle to crush the seeds, but don't put too much effort into it, you don't need the seeds to be perfectly grounded, just a bit crushed.

Peel the pears, but leave the stems attached. Cut off the bottoms of the pears allowing them to stand upright, core them and make sure to remove all the seeds. Combine water, sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and cardamom and bring to a boil in a sauce pan. Reduce the heat and simmer until the pears are slightly tender, for about 10 minutes or so. Remove from the pan.

Ingredients for the batter:

180 g butter, room temperature

180 g sugar

3 eggs

10 g vanilla extract

190 g flour

5 g baking powder

40 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Butter 6 ramekins. Sift the flour and the baking powder, set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, add the vanilla extract. Reduce the speed of your mixer and add the flour mixture and the milk in three additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients (flour, milk, flour). Mix well to incorporate.

Pour the batter into the ramekins and push in the pears until they touch the bottom. Bake for about 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from Happy Meal Time.