Recipe: Slow-baked honey wine pears

After several quiet hours in the oven, wood-hard pears emerge from these honey-wine hot springs heavy and limp with flavor, then they relax onto plates like chubby bathers. I recently discovered that the longer the pears sit in their syrup after cooking, the more ruby colored they get all the way through. Gorgeous served with sweetened, Cognac-scented whipped cream.

Makes: 4 servings

4 Bosc pears or 8 small Anjou pears
1 bottle dry red wine
1/2 cup (125 mL) honey

Heat the oven to 250°F (120°C). Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and lay them in a lidded ovenproof dish just large enough to hold them. Bring the wine and honey to the boil, pour over the pears, cover, and transfer to the oven. Bake 4 to 5 hours, turning now and again, until very tender. With a slotted spoon, gently remove the pears to a serving bowl. Boil the liquid rapidly until reduced to a syrup, about 20 minutes. Pour over the pears and let sit at room temperature for several hours, or cover and refrigerate until about an hour before serving.

---

BUY THIS BOOK
Excerpted from French Taste by Laura Calder. Copyright 2009 by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Excerpted with permission by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Read more in Food & Entertaining and Recipes