Sweet, juicy and perfect ripe pears are truly one of the most wonderful fruits, loved by people of all ages. That’s probably one of the reasons why “Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland” treated kids with pears from his fruit trees. “No, my kids will never eat a single pear!”, you might reply.
Well, it means that you probably haven’t found the right presentation for the fruit to get your little rascal interested. We’ve seen people who tried to serve their kiddos pork and pears on one plate. Many grown-ups swear by it, but little ones usually don’t understand the complexity of this savoury-sweet combo.
Go amaze the youngsters
But we have some other recipes that will definitely amaze the youngsters. Try roasted pears with mascarpone cream and thyme. This one will make your breakfasts way easier – and your kids will ask for more of these sweet snacks. The clear benefit is that this morsel can be eaten with your bare hand. Of course, you could use a fork and a knife, but sometimes it’s so great to feel your food.
You’ll need 8 medium-sized pears. Wash them, halve, core and place halves cut side up on a baking sheet. Drizzle with some lemon juice, grease with butter and sprinkle a little sugar on each piece. Put several thyme sprigs around the pears. Then pour 3-4 Tbsp of plain tap water into the bottom of the baking sheet and pop it into the 180˚C oven for 40 minutes. Flip the pears halfway through the baking. When a fork easily goes into the flesh, the pears are ready.
Now to the fun part. To get your mascarpone cheese into the right consistency, you’ll need to stabilize it with whipped cream. For that, pour 240 gr of heavy cream into a mixing bowl, add 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1,5 Tbsp of powdered sugar and whip everything at high speed until soft peaks form.
Now add 120 gr of mascarpone cheese straight to the bowl and continue beating. You can reach your own desired consistency. When ready, top each pear with a dollop of vanilla cream’n’cheese, sprinkle with roasted thyme leaves and let your kids enjoy this easy and fancy ‘better breakfast’ dessert right away.
From pears to dust
If you have some pears left, you can slice them thinly on a mandoline into rounds, removing the stem and seeds, arrange them on a baking tray and sprinkle with spices (mix together 1 Tbsp of sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and ¼ tsp of ground ginger and 1 pinch of cayenne and salt).
Lower the oven heat to 150˚C and bake the slices for 40 minutes, turning them as they cook. The pears should be still slightly soft when you take them out but eventually they will harden as they cool off. You’ve just made pear crisps which by the way can be shattered to dust and added to the mascarpone cheese or eaten as is with some honey all over them.
What do you think?