Honey-baked pears with blue cheese and walnut biscuits recipe

A delicious dessert of pears baked in honey and served with home-made walnut biscuits and a shard of gorgonzola.

Serves six

For the biscuits 
90g (3oz) walnut pieces
125g (4½oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tbsp soft light-brown sugar
4 tbsp olive oil
about 4 tbsp water

For the pears
6 fat pears, not too ripe
15g (½oz) butter
4 tbsp honey
2 tbsp granulated sugar
175g (6oz) gorgonzola, cashel blue or other blue cheese

Put the walnuts into a food processor and pulse a few times. You want to end up with nuts that are partly fine-ground, partly coarse-ground. Put them into a bowl and sift on the flour and ¼ tsp salt. Add the baking powder and sugar. Pour in the olive oil and mix together with a table knife, gradually adding the water. Use as much of the water as you need to bring the mixture into a ball. It should neither be too wet nor too dry and crumbly. Pat into a disc.

Put this on a lightly floured work surface and roll out to about 0.25cm (⅛in) thick. Take a 6.5cm (2½in) biscuit cutter and cut out rounds, transferring them to a parchment-covered baking-sheet. Gather up the scraps of dough as you go along, reroll them and cut out more rounds until you have used up all the dough. Bake these – there's no need to chill – in an oven preheated to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 for about 18 minutes. The biscuits should be slightly golden at the edges. Leave to cool a little then move to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Halve the pears – there's no need to peel or core them – and place them cut-side up in a small roasting-tin or gratin dish so they fit snugly. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the honey, sugar and a good pinch of salt. Stir to melt then pour over the pears. Bake in an oven at 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4, basting occasionally, and turning halfway through. Return them to the cut-side-up position for the last five minutes. They should be completely tender and slightly caramelised. It should take about 30 minutes, but depends how ripe your pears are.

Serve the pears warm, with a piece of blue cheese and the walnut biscuits. You can sprinkle the fruit with toasted walnut pieces, if you like, drizzle the cheese with a small amount of honey, or even put a little bit of honey in the comb on each plate.

source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/9581714/Honey-baked-pears-with-blue-cheese-and-walnut-biscuits-recipe.html

Categories: pears