Spiced Pears in Butterscotch Sauce

Poached pears is my go-to recipe, when I’m looking for a quick, tasty and light dessert (click HERE for the recipe). Pears have an incredible way of absorbing flavors while cooking, yet keep their shape, and can be easily served on their own, or with few additions, creating an effortless and elegant dessert.
In the following recipe, I was looking for a thicker sauce, and decided on butterscotch sauce – a combination of butter of brown sugar. To get the nutty flavor of brown butter added into the sauce, and to deepen the flavors and color, I started by frying the pears in the butter. I then added brown sugar, hard pear cider, cinnamon stick, vanilla and fresh ginger, and poached the pears in it, until they softened. The last step was to reduce the syrup into a thick caramel-buttery-spiced sauce. Served on their own, or with a scoop of ice cream, the pears make a perfect last minute dessert. Try it and enjoy.

Makes: 3-6
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:
3 ripe but firm pears (I used Red Anjous)
1 stick cinnamon
½ stick (55 grams) butter, soft
A knob of ginger, about 0.5 inch (1.25 cm), peeled and sliced
½ cup dark brown sugar
Dash salt
1 cup hard pear cider (or hard apple cider)
1 tsp vanilla extract
For serving (optional):
Vanilla ice cream

1. Peel the pears, cut in half lengthwise, and core them.

2. Melt the butter in a medium wide pot, over medium-high heat. Add the pears, core side down, and cinnamon stick, and fry for 1-2 minutes. Flip and fry for 1 minute. Flip again, add the sugar, ginger, salt, cider and vanilla. Bring to the boil, cover the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for 15 minutes.

3. Uncover the pot, flip the pears over, increase the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Flip the pears over again, core side down, and increase the heat to high. Bring to the boil and cook for about 5 more minutes, until the sauce reduces and thickens.

4. Transfer the pears to a container, strain the sauce over them, and discard the cinnamon and ginger. Serve warm, with or without ice cream on the side.