Maple Baked Pears with Granola Crumb

Sponsored by Lizi’s Granola

Do you need an idea for a super quick and easy dessert for when anything more involved sends you running from the kitchen? Well today I have just that recipe. The prep time is super quick, you can be curled up on the sofa with in a couple minutes with dessert taking care of itself in the kitchen. 

If you had a childhood at all similar to me, then baked apples were a regular dessert, served hot from the oven with lots of thick custard. Cored apples were filled with dried fruit and baked until squishy, almost to the point of collapsing. At the time I found the dessert boring but now something simple like this is pure comfort for me. For this version I have opted for pears and I don’t roast them for so long that they are devoid of texture, I like them tender but not so soft they could be baby food. And talking of texture, to add an extra layer of crunch and an extra layer of flavour, I like to serve these pears with a scattering of Lizi’s High Protein Nuts and Seeds Granola. The granola adds a ton of interest to a very simple dessert and makes it something a little fancier. This particular granola is made with pumpkin seeds, walnuts and almonds and sweetened with a mix of apple juice and black treacle for a wonderful flavour that goes brilliant on this dessert. To roast the pears I like to use maple syrup and butter plus a little spice in the form of cardamom, cinnamon and orange zest. Whilst these flavours are a little autumnal you can adapt them to suit whatever you are fancying in the moment. You can also make similar desserts with summer fruits like peaches and plums, serving it with a little drizzle of double cream or a dollop of creme fraiche.

Maple Baked Pears with Granola Crumb
Serves 4

4 large pears, ripe but a little firm
100ml maple syrup
50g unsalted butter, diced
4 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
3 strips orange zest
50g Lizi’s High Protein Nuts and Seeds Granola

Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).

Peel the pears, cut in half and then scoop out the cores. Into a rimmed baking tray pour the maple syrup and place the pears, cut side down, into the tray. Add the diced butter to the tray and scatter over the cardamom pods, the cinnamon stick and orange zest. 

Bake the pears in the oven for about 25 minutes or until tender, turning the pears halfway through cooking. To test the pears are cooked, pierce with a knife, they should present almost no resistance. By the time the pears are cooked the maple syrup and butter should have formed a syrupy sauce. 

To serve place two pear halves into a bowl scatter over a couple tbsp of the granola and a generous drizzle of the sauce. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream

Frosé Sorbet

I think I can say with certainty that everyone is bored of being stuck inside, within our own four walls, bored of our new normal. With the weather being rather glorious right now, but being unable to enjoy it at all, I have been thinking about the summer and the hope that lockdown conditions might be eased enough that we will be somehow able to enjoy it. Because that dream isn’t possible right now I want to get us out of our homes through food. To let you imagine, even if only for a short while, that we are somewhere warm, relaxing by a pool with a glass of something chilled as we relax doing nothing. The dessert that I think gets us there is a summer sorbet served with a glass of crisp cold rosé or even better, combined together to make a ‘frose’ sorbet, a frozen rosé sorbet. Frosé was the drink that seemed to be everywhere last year and I thought right now was the perfect time to turn that idea into a dessert. This sorbet version, a blend of strawberries, pears and rosé is a wonderful fruit filled version of Frosé thats easy to make and low on ingredients.

Its a real simple dessert needing only 4 ingredients with minimal effort and skill. You do need an ice cream machine but ill talk about how to make the sorbet without a machine in the recipe. For the wine I would suggest using a crisp dry rose, something that isn’t super sweet as we don’t want to make make an overly sweet dessert, sorbet is on the sweeter side to start with. For the fruit it is also worth trying to use ripe strawberries and pears. There is nothing worse than a bland hard strawberry or a rock solid pear that tastes of nothing. Adding sugar to either won’t magically improve them, although it will obviously up the sweetness level, so try and use fruit that already tastes great.

Frosé Sorbet
Serves 6

600g strawberries
600g pears (I like Williams or conference)
300ml dry rosé wine
200g caster sugar

Making sorbet means we need to make two elements, a sugar syrup and a fruit puree. To make the syrup place the wine and sugar into a saucepan and place over medium/high heat. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring to help dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved cook for a couple minutes more until the mixture has reduced to about 350ml’s worth of liquid. Traditionally a sugar syrup is made with equal parts sugar and water but I wanted to increase the amount of flavour in the syrup so by starting with a greater amount of wine we can cook it for longer, reducing the water content but concentrating the wine flavour. Pour the syrup into a jug and set aside for the moment.

For the puree, cut off the stems from the strawberries and cut into quarters. For the pears, cut off the top and bottom, cut into quarters and remove the core. Place the fruit into a food processer or blender and puree until smooth. Pour the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove any pulp or seeds. The remaining puree should weigh about 500g.

Pour the syrup into the puree and stir together to combine. If you want to make the recipe without even following a recipe I have a cool trick for you, a way to learn if the concentration of sugar is correct. If the sorbet doesn’t have enough sugar it will freeze more like ice and will give more of a granita like finish. If the sugar level is too high it won’t freeze properly and you’ll end up with a slushie. When you get the sugar levels just right you’ll have a beautifully smooth but scoopable sorbet. To test pour the sorbet base into a jug and then get a spotlessly clean egg, yes an egg really, and gently place it into the jug. If the egg sinks there isn’t enough sugar, it it floats well above the surface there is too much. What you’re looking for is the egg to be floating just enough that a little bit of it pokes above the surface, you should see a roughly 2.5cm wide circle of the egg peaking through the surface of the sorbet. Knowing this you can make a sorbet from any fruits without ever using a recipe.

Place the sorbet base into the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours. Chilling it before it’s churned means it will churn faster creating a nicer texture.

When ready to churn use the manufacturers instructions to churn in an ice cream machine. When soft but holding its shape, looking a little like a thick slushie, turn off the machine and scrape into a freezable container (I like to use loaf pans), cover and freeze for at least 4 hours or until solid.

Homemade sorbets don’t last as long as ice cream so this needs to be consumed within a few days of making.

Making Sorbet Without An Ice Cream Machine

Make as above but when it comes to churning pour the chilled base into the loaf pan and place straight into the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so take the sorbet out of the freezer and use a fork to stir the sorbet, breaking up any big icy patches before returning to the freezer. Repeat this process until the sorbet is almost frozen then leave in the freezer until firm. The resulting sorbet won’t be as smooth as one made with a machine but it will still be a wonderful homemade dessert perfect for warm summer days.