• Packham’s Triumph pears are the most suitable for baking and are perfect for this recipe.

    Warm baked pears with goat's cheese filling

    Serves: 6
    Cooking Time: 1 hour

    Ingredients

    • 6 – 8 medium pears
    • 1 lime, halved
    • 100g – 150g muscovado sugar, plus extra to serve
    • GOAT’S CHEESE FILLING
    • 80g raw pistachio nuts
    • 3 cardamom pods
    • 100g goat’s milk cheese
    • 250g cream cheese, plain or suitably flavoured
    • 30ml honey

    Instructions

    1

    Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

    2

    Peel the pears and cut them in half horizontally. Remove the core from the bottom part of the pear and rub with the lime and muscovado sugar.

    3

    Place the pears in a lightly buttered baking tray and cover loosely with foil. Bake for 30 minutes.

    4

    Get the filling ready by roasting the nuts in a hot pan for a minute while moving them about constantly. Remove the nuts from the pan and cool before roughly chopping.

    5

    Crush the cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Discard the pods. Grind the seeds to a fine powder in a pestle and mortar.

    6

    Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix.

    7

    Spoon this mixture into the bottom half of the pears as soon as they come out of the oven and top with the other half. Rub with more muscovado sugar and serve immediately with dollops of crème fraîche.