Roasted Pears: Easy Fall Dessert

This is a great simple dessert that also has the added advantage of being really quite healthy. It also happens to be gluten and dairy free. A great paleo or vegan dessert as well.

I first served this dessert to a group of my family members who were visiting from out of town. We had a large dinner of my favorite ribs, with mashed potatoes, fresh tomatoes with basil, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, and other fresh vegetables from a farm box I picked up. For Dessert I wanted something just as fresh, but I also wanted it to be really easy to put together with people there. This fits the bill. 

Roasted Pears With Coconut Whipped Cream:

For the Pears:
Half a pear per person, slightly firm
A sprinkle each of cinnamon and cardamum
About 2 teaspoons real maple syrup per pear half

For the Whipped Cream:
A can of Whole coconut milk in a can (or Trader Joe's Coconut cream, in a can)
           Chilled well (I usually just keep a can in the fridge in case I want it)
A teaspoon vanilla extract
A tablespoon of maple syrup
A pinch of ground cardamom

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, put the beaters and mixing bowl into the freezer to chill

Wash the pears, cut them in half length wise and use a melon baller to scoop the seeds out. Sprinkle the pear with a bit of cinnamon and cardamom and then lightly pour maple syrup on them (about 2 teaspoons). Place in the oven for 30 minutes to bake until soft.

About 5 minutes before the pears are done get your mixing bowl out of the freezer and set it up. Open up the can of well chilled coconut milk and you should see a firm thick white layer. Scoop out just the very firm white layer into the mixing bowl, leaving behind the clear liquid for another use. Start mixing the coconut milk in the mixer on medium speed, add in the vanilla, maple syrup, and cardamom. What should happen is the coconut milk should become fluffy and look like whipped cream.

Serve the pears hot with the whipped coconut milk on top. We also served dark 80% chocolate with them and some people put small pieces in the middle of the pears so it would melt, that was great!

Ricotta Stuffed Apricots

The other day at the super market I saw these beautiful orange apricots and felt like I really needed to find a way to use them. I decided to experiment with making stuffed apricots with sour cream or ricotta and rosemary.

I ended up trying out both and found that I really preferred the ricotta because there is already a lot of tartness from the apricots so the sour of the sour cream did not counter that flavor enough for me. I added a little bit of finely chopped rosemary and maple syrup to the cheese, scooped the mix into the apricot and broiled it until the cheese was just lightly browned.

The combination was amazing. I tart flavor of the apricots combined with the slightly sweet cheese and woodsy rosemary was amazing. I was mostly amazed at how filling this was considering the small size of an apricot and the small dollop of ricotta it takes to fill the space where the pit was.

This recipe became my breakfast for the next few days and I am sure to revisit it throughout the apricot season.

Enjoy!

2 firm but ripe apricots cut in half with the pit removed
2 tablespoons ricotta
1/8 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (sprinkle it in starting with half the amount and then taste to see if you want to add the full amount)
2 teaspoons maple syrup plus a slight drizzle for the top

Mix the cheese, rosemary and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup together. Scoop into the place where the pit was in the apricot filling generously. Drizzle very slightly with maple syrup. Broil until lightly browned.

YUM!

My kids preferred to eat the ricotta mix on slices of apple. Another version of this uses cinnamon and vanilla in the ricotta with some maple syrup. This makes a great dip for apples. 

UPDATE: A Vegan Version I just made recently that is amazing:

 You make these the same way as the non-vegan version but I made cashew cheese to go in them instead of ricotta or mascarpone. Here is the deal with cashew cheese:

Fill a large container (that can hold at least 4-6 cups of stuff with 1 cup of raw cashews and the rest with boiled water that has cooled just for a minute or two. Allow it to sit at least 1 hour but it is even better (smoother end result) if you can let it sit all day or over night and most of the day. 

Next drain the water into a measuring cup and add to the cashews about 2 tablespoons maple syrup and 1/4 cup of the reserved water. Using a very good blender (Vitamix or that sort) or an immersion blender on high speed mix these together until smooth. If it does not seem to be blending you may need to add a bit more water but be cautious about this and take it slow doing it just a tablespoon at a time. You want this to be very smooth and thick about the texture of mascarpone cheese. 

Follow the rest of the recipe as above in the non-vegan version.