Muscat Poached Pears Recipes

SCARLET POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Bring wine, beet, sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, and bay leaves to a boil in a 1 1/2- to 2-quarts saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
• Add pears and cover with a round of parchment paper. Simmer, turning occasionally, until pears are tender and liquid is syrupy, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer pears to a bowl. Discard cinnamon stick and bay leaves and pour syrup over pears. Cool completely in syrup, about 30 minutes.

SMALL PEAR AND ALMOND CAKES

Steps:

• Poach pears:
• Peel pears, leaving stems intact, then core from bottom with melon-ball cutter. Toss pears with lemon juice in a bowl as peeled, then arrange on their sides in a 10-inch heavy skillet. Add wine, butter, and lemon juice from bowl (liquid will not cover pears) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until pears are just tender, 10 to 20 minutes. Transfer pears with a slotted spoon to a dish. Boil poaching liquid, uncovered, until just syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup, 12 to 15 minutes. Spoon syrup over pears and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
• Prepare cakes:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
• Pulse almonds with 1/2 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground, then transfer to a bowl (do not clean processor).
• Process butter with 1/2 cup sugar in processor until pale and creamy, then pulse in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each addition, then pulse in almond mixture, flour, and salt until just combined.
• Lightly butter and flour ramekins, knocking out excess flour, then arrange in a baking pan. Divide batter among ramekins (about a slightly rounded 1/2 cup per ramekin), then gently nestle a pear, leaning it slightly and pressing it very lightly, into batter in center of each cake. (Cakes will rise around pears as they bake.) Reserve reduced poaching liquid for another use. Sprinkle pears and tops of cakes with remaining tablespoon sugar.
• Bake, rotating pan halfway through baking, until cakes are just firm and pale golden with slightly darker edges, about 20 minutes.
• Transfer ramekins to a rack and cool 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around edge of each cake and invert onto a plate. Turn cakes right side up and serve warm or at room temperature.

ORANGE-MUSCAT PEARS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Select a deep, ovenproof, nonreactive saucepan that will hold the pears snugly when they are placed in it upright. Pour the wine and orange juice into the pan.
• Peel the pears, taking care to leave the stems intact. If desired, remove the cores, digging them out with the point of a vegetable peeler or knife. As the pears are peeled, place them upright in the saucepan, coating them with the wine mixture so they do not discolor.
• Place the saucepan in the oven and bake the pears for 3 hours, basting occasionally, until they are very tender.
• Remove the pears from the oven and carefully transfer them to a dish that will still hold them upright.
• Add the orange zest and honey to the saucepan and boil the remaining liquid until it is reduced to about 1/3 cup, turns a caramel color and becomes very syrupy. Toward the end of the cooking, the syrup will start to boil up in the pan; remove it from the heat and allow it to settle to determine whether it needs additional boiling. Do not allow the syrup to scorch. Pour it over the pears. Refrigerate them until serving time.
• Serve the pears in chilled goblets or dishes, with sorbet or ice cream on the side, if desired.

PEARS POACHED IN BEAUMES-DE-VENISE AND HONEY

Steps:

• Combine the Muscat, water and honey in a large noncorroding saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Meanwhile, peel the pears neatly with a vegetable peeler, keeping the stem but removing the blossom end. Drop each pear into the simmering liquid as you peel it. Lay a piece of parchment paper directly on the pears to keep them moist.
• Lower heat so that the liquid is just under a simmer. Cook until the pears are barely tender when tested with a knife in the blossom-end side, about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the pears.
• Remove the pears and cool in a container in a single layer. Increase heat and simmer the cooking liquid until reduced to about three quarters of its original volume, about 20 minutes. Cool separately from the pears. When pears and syrup are both cool, combine and refrigerate until cold, preferably overnight. Serve with creme fraiche and crisp cookies.