Dessert for a change (a simple baked pear)

 This one is going to need a little tweaking, but I'm fairly happy with the results, especially considering I was winging it without a recipe.

I like the flavor of pears, but I'm not really fond of the texture. Mostly I use them in smoothies with a lot of chopped or grated ginger (there's usually some in the house, sometimes fresh, soemtimes from a jar), vanilla protein powder, almond milk, maybe some nutmeg, the last idea for which I thank my unofficially adopted little sister Fae.

I've tried a few different kinds and I usually come back to Bosc. I've had them grilled, poached in wine, these have gone over vanilla ice cream or gelato.

This week I figured, why not bake one? It's no secret I loathe the taste and texture of the traditional flour/sugar/salt/water/fat, but really, there's no rule all baked fruit needs to be in pie or tart or turnover. 

If I wanted crunch, I have raspberry granola, and that could be an option for the other pear in the fridge. I like the spices, though, so after some thought, I came up with this.

• One Bosc pear lazily peeled so there's a little left for texture,
• 3/4 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I had light in the pantry. Dark would work just fine)
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• 2 Tablespoons cream for serving

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F (244 C, 477 Kelvin) first thing. 

The pear was chopped into bits no bigger than a cubic inch. No, I didn't measure, this was purely eyeballed. I tried to keep them similar.

Next, I  used some of the butter to grease a small class baking dish, then put the rest in a ramekin in the microwave at level 5 for 30 seconds to melt it. Pears into the dish, stir with the butter.

From there, I sprinkled on the sugar and stirred again, then shook the nutmeg and ginger jars over the pears a few times. Again with the stirring.

This next bit is where I need to tweak some. I put the pears in the oven, uncovered, and stirred them every ten minutes or so. I think I need to do this at list every fifteen. I didn't really get some nice browning until about 45 minutes in and I ended up turning up the heat a touch towards the end. I will post an update when I do this again.

It also needs a bit more spice, maybe a touch of vanilla. 

They came out of the oven looking like this:

and it is definitely clear that I need some smaller bowls because the serving, which was perfect for one, looked a little lonely in the smallest of the bowls I have.

I finished it with 2 T of cream because I love fruit and cream and I didn't want the sweetness of ice cream to overwhelm the spices. It made for an excellent mouthfeel. 

Quite easy, overall. It could easily be made vegan with a butter substitute (I'm not up on my butter substitu5es), and finishing it with a coffee creamer. Trader Joe's has a vanilla one made with almond and coconut milk that could work, but I'd use only 1 T because it will have extra sugar. Not sure if almond milk by itself would work, but it's definitely worth investigating.

If you try this, please let me know!