Quick desserts: Caramelised Pears

Sadly no baking blitz today, as I've had the day off work sick (I was a bit run down and full of cold-y headache-y fun), and because of that, and since it's a short week anyway I doubt I'll have time to fit in any lunchtime baking this week - tune in again next Tuesday for normal transmissions to resume!

Anyway, by this evening, after a day curled up on the couch doing little but sipping from my drink bottle and half watching the abomination that is daytime television I was in the mood for something sweet for a bit of a boost.

This is a pretty simple recipe - it takes almost no effort, less than 15 minutes, only a couple of ingredients, and is pretty versatile. It starts with a tin of pears (you can of course use real fruit if you have it on hand! It will take a little longer as a) you'll have to cut it up and b) you'll start the cooking from scratch but will likely have mildly more nutritional value - but we usually have these in the pantry since they last forever).

You add the pears, with about 1/3 of the juice from the tin, to a saucepan with about 30g of butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar. You can also add spices to suit (cinnamon is nice).

Then you just let it boil for about 10 minutes on a medium to high heat, until the sauce is thick and caramelly. Done! It's great with a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream; you can make a deconstructed dessert pie by putting a sheet of frozen puff pastry in the oven until cooked (that's one of my Mum's best quick dessert tricks); or, if you happen to have crepes in the freezer you can warm up a couple of those to have with your pears. ;-)

Voila! Dessert is served. Yummmmm...