Pears baked with white wine, almonds and armaretto (langas mimli bil-lewz)

An easy dessert that’s best suited to ripe, in-season pears. The white wine and amaretto add a level of luxury to this grown-up dessert. If you prefer, replace the amaretto with your favourite liqueur or whatever you have on hand.

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  1:15 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 4 ripe pears, peeled and halved
• 125 ml sweet dessert wine
• 100 g almond meal
• 25 g caster sugar
• 25 g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp amaretto
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind
• ice-cream or warm vanilla custard, to serve

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

Using a sharp knife or a teaspoon, remove the core from the pears and arrange in a baking dish. Pour over the wine, cover tightly with foil and bake for 1–1½ hours or until tender. Place the almond meal, caster sugar, butter, amaretto and lemon rind in a bowl and mix until combined. Remove the baking dish from the oven, uncover and divide the mixture between the pears. Return to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 15–20 minutes or until the almond mixture has browned.

Serve with warm custard or ice-cream.

Photography by Alan Benson

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.