Roasted Pears with Homemade Caramel Sauce

As soon as the autumn chill hits, I begin to crave foods that just feel like the season: apple dumplings, spice bread, pumpkin pancakes, gingerbread with apple cider. So many popular recipes seem to concentrate on apples or pumpkins as the sole flavors of fall. But here's a dessert recipe that honors a seemingly forgotten fruit of the season- Roasted Pears with Caramel Sauce. The recipe is so simple that I teach it to my cooking class kids, but elegant enough that it elicited Ahhhs of delight at a Secret Supper I hosted. Here you are, Dear Reader, and don't blame me if you end up drinking the caramel sauce on the sly...

Roasted Pears with Homemade Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
For the roasted pears:

• firm pears of any variety (this recipe also works with apples, if you don’t care for pears) One serving equals 1/2 pear. So take the number of those dining and divide by two. Of course, I always do at least one extra, because there is always someone who needs a second helping!
• butter
• 1 Tbsp. water

For the caramel sauce:
(These quantities make enough sauce for approximately 12 pear halves served with ice cream. If you do less fruit than that, congratulations! You’ll have extra caramel to put on something else. Refrigerate and use within a week’s time.)

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark Karo syrup
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• splash of vanilla extract
  
• pinch Fleur de Sel or coarse salt

Vanilla bean ice cream (optional) or whipped cream

My middle baby, Seth, helping peel pears for Family Dinner!

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Peel the pears, then cut in half from the stem down to the blossom end. Core the pear and take out the line that goes up to the stem, it can be tough. Place pears in a baking dish with the cut side up. Put a small pat of butter in the hollow of each pear half. Sprinkle about 1 Tbsp. of water in the bottom of the baking dish.
Place the dish in the preheated 400° oven. The amount of time to cook varies by the ripeness of the fruit. If you use completely hard pears, they will simply take longer to cook. Firm fruit takes around 15-20 minutes. Hard pears may take up to 35 minutes. You will know when they are cooked through, because they will have browned slightly and are easily pierced with a fork.

Perfectly roasted and golden.

 While the pears are roasting you can make the caramel sauce.
Place the butter, Karo, and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Heat on medium heat, stirring frequently, especially at the edges of the pan, until it comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low; continue stirring for at least one minute. Dip a spoon in the sauce and let it cool enough to taste. Don’t pop it in your mouth while hot or you may never regrow your taste-buds! When the sample is cool enough to taste, check to see if it is smooth. If you can feel sugar granules when you rub your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then continue to cook, stirring constantly. Check after another minute has passed. The time will vary, depending on how large your pan’s cooking surface is. 
Continue checking till the caramel is no longer grainy. (A hardship, I know!) When the sauce has a velvety smooth texture, slowly add the heavy cream, followed by a splash of vanilla extract, stirring constantly all the while. These will thin the mixture drastically. Give a pinch of salt. You can use the sauce now, as a thin drizzle, or you can let it sit and thicken while the pears cook. I prefer it thicker so it sticks to the pears instead of running off. If it becomes too thick, return to the burner and gently reheat.

Place a pear half on a rimmed plate or bowl and put a scoop of ice cream to the side. Liberally drizzle both with the fresh caramel sauce. Eat immediately, but please be sure to warn your diners if the sauce is still hot. Hot caramel is like molten magma. Don’t be surprised if there are requests for more caramel topping!

Once you’ve made the caramel and see how easy it is, you’ll never want to go back to the jarred variety. This sauce would also be wonderful over fresh apple slices (like at the fair), or roasted apples. Or apple cake. Or gingerbread, or...!! So many possibilities. The final one being that you can hide the last little bit in the fridge and let it set up overnight. It firms up to something like the center of a really good truffle. Then when no one it looking, you can eat it with a spoon (evil laughter...)