Sunday, May 4, 2014

Baked Pears with Feta Cheese


For this month's SRC, I was assigned to Charlotte's blog, Love and Flour.  If you've ever read the intro on herself, you'll find that she's quite a fun person.  Ex:  she used to measure the water to cook the spaghetti.  :)  But, judging from the photos on her blog, you'd think she was a professional.  For instance, she participated in the Willow Bird Baking Challenge, exercised amazing creativity, and came up with mouthwatering delicacies like this Honey Pear & Feta Braid (which I so wanted to make but just didn't have enough time). 

 

Still, that combo of the pears and feta intrigued me.  Other than eating bananas with mozzarella, my experiences in pairing fruit and cheese have been pretty much non-existent (yeah, I don't even do the apple pie with cheddar thing).  Since Charlotte had another recipe on her blog using the same combo, Baked Pears with Feta Cheese and Honey, I decided it was time to expand my palate and go for it.

 

This dish is super elegant and classy and will impress anyone that you make it for.  The secret is that they are also very easy and quick to make.  In fact, the hardest part was when they came out of the oven and I couldn't even dig into them yet because . . . I had to take pictures first.  You have no idea how torturous it is to see these succulent pears, golden and dripping with honey, while you stand and take one shot after another.  All I could think about was,

The recipe says that you're supposed to eat these while they're warm.  
"But I can't right now, I have to get my shots first!"  
They're going to get coooold.   (little taunting voice) 
Okay, okay, I'm done.  Gimme a pear!  Mmf mmmff mfff. 


The feta cheese on these was incredible.  The taste of it had mellowed, become sweeter due to the brown sugar, and was like a dessert in and of itself.  The firmness of it was a nice contrast to the softer, juicy pear underneath and together, it was the perfect pear (ahem, I mean pair).  I can definitely see whipping up a batch of these for a lovely appetizer or a light dessert. 

Thanks Charlotte for your sweet recipe!

Baked Pears with Feta and Honey (slightly adapted from Love & Flour)

2 pears, cored and halved
1 Tbsp. butter, quartered
8 tsp. crumbled feta cheese (I used fat-free)
4 tsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. honey
cinnamon

Place the pears in a baking dish with the cut side facing up.  Fill each cored out center with a dollop of butter, then sprinkle with the feta cheese and brown sugar.  Bake 35-40 minutes at 350F till tender.  Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.



12 comments:

  1. I've never done a fruit cheese pairing before either. But this looks lovely. And that description has me wanting to try these out real soon. YUMM!!!

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  2. I am totally in love with this recipe! I love the salty sweet combo!

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  3. YUM! I would never think to bake the pears all on the own- can't wait to try!

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  4. Wow, that looks amazing! I would never thought to combine feta with pears. I've had endive leaves with blue cheese and pear before, and those are pretty awesome.

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  5. A perfect dessert or maybe even breakfast. Pears pair so well with strong cheeses. Love.

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  6. Ha ha, I love the inner monologue! This is such a beautiful and elegant dessert. I'm a big fan of combining salty and sweet, so I think the flavors sound amazing together. Great pick!

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  7. This recipe looks amazing, and oh so elegant to boot! I bet it would be delicious with all kinds of other cheeses, too... I'm dying to try this with blue cheese, or maybe some goat cheese.

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  8. I love the fruit and cheese combo! I can just imagine the temptation to eat them right out of the oven. :)

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  9. I've never liked the pear/blue cheese combo, but I think feta would be great!

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  10. what a wonderful dessert this would be! yum.

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  11. What a great combination - I never would have thought to add feta. Yum!

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  12. Thanks for sharing this- nice stuff! Keep up the Excellent work, 
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