Ginger Roasted Pear Scones

I get strange urges to bake sometimes. A certain flavour or smell will stick in my head and linger until I bake it out. When I made the roasted pears last night, I suddenly wanted to make roasted pear scones. With ginger. So I rustled up some willpower, and saved 4 roasted pear halves, (which I only used 2 of incidentally) and these scones are the result. The original recipe came from a cookbook that is slowly becoming my favourite, Once Upon a Tart. You may be seeing alot from that book in the near future.

I changed it up a bit to accommodate the roasted pears, and I think the next time I would feel comfortable reducing the butter to 2 sticks instead of 2 ½, there seemed to be an alarming amount of butter swimming on the pan when I checked the scones at 15 minutes, but it had mysteriously vanished by the 18 minute mark. The scones are delicious though. The crystallized ginger complements the carmelly roasted pears, with the buttery scone marrying it all together. It was the perfect sidekick to my morning latte. I guess this urge was not so strange after all!!

Ginger and Roasted Pear Scones

1 ½ cups unbleached flour

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2 ½ sticks unsalted butter (cut up into ¼ inch cubes)I will reduce it to 2 sticks next time)

2 eggs

½ cup cold buttermilk (see notes below)

½ cup diced roasted pears (see method here)

½ cup diced candied ginger

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Egg wash: 1 large egg mixed with 1 tbsp milk or cream

2 tbsp (ish) raw sugar for sprinkling tops

Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven. Line a large pan with parchment paper, set aside.

Chop 2 halves of a roasted pear, approx 1/2 cup, set aside

Chop candied ginger, set aside

Grate fresh Ginger, a piece about this big...

Gives you about a tsp when grated, I use my rasp to grate, but you can use the smallest holes of a box grater too. (yes, that is a cut on my finger, very crusty bread and a serrated knife...'nuff said??)

Set aside for now.

Whisk together dry ingredients

Cut in butter with pastry blender until it is looks like moist crumbs, do not overmix,

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs

Add the buttermilk, ginger, roasted pears and crystallized ginger.

Add to dry ingredients

Mix just until the flour is incorporated, no longer, or your scones will be tough.

Using your hands(lightly flour your hands to keep dough from sticking), scoop out a small handful and shape into a ball. Place on parchement lined pan. Continue with the rest of the dough, you should end up with about 12 balls.

Press balls down with your palm

So they are about this thick

Brush with egg wash

Top with a sprinkle of raw sugar (a scant tsp per scone)

Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Serve warm, preferably with your morning latte!

Buttermilk notes:

Buttermilk is generally not replaceable with regular milk in recipes.  I usually keep powdered buttermilk in my cupboard, I get it at the bulk food store.  If you dont have any buttermilk or powder, you can use a tablespoon of white vinegar to one cup of regular milk. Stir and let it hang out for a few minutes, and then use the amount called for in your recipe

Roasted Pears

Wow. Roasted Pears. Where have you been all my life?? These are seriously good folks, in a roasty carmelly sticky yummy sort of way. When I first read this recipe, on the Orangette blog,  I thought they would probably be good. After all, poached pears are good, my pear custard tart is tasty, pears in general are pretty darn scrumptious. But roasting takes these babies to a whole new level. I shouldn’t be so surprised, really. Roasting vegetables has elevated my favourites to delectable status. I don’t know why I wouldn’t assume it would do the same for pears. I just never thought of roasting them before. Oh silly me. This will be repeated , often.


If you happen to have any left, (I had to use every bit of will power to save some!!) save 2 halves for these Ginger Roasted Pear Scones. In a word, YUM.

Roasted Pears:

1 /4 cup( ish) vanilla sugar (see method at end of recipe)

7 medium ripe pears (I used Bosc, but I think any would do)

½ fresh lemon, squeezed and seeds removed

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Water

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise.

 Core them with a melon baller. ( You can leave the stems on if you like, for presentation)

Place them cut side down in a large baking dish.

Drizzle with the lemon juice.

Sprinkle evenly with the vanilla sugar.

Place a piece of butter on each pear.

Add 3 Tbsp water to the dish.

Bake the pears for 40 minutes to 1 hour, basting every 10 minutes or so with the juices in the pan. Turn occasionally. They should be soft and starting to turn a nice carmelly brown when they are ready. Add a few tablespoons of water during the basting time if the liquid is evaporating to fast, I added about 6 more during the whole cooking time, 3tbsp at 30 minutes and 3 again at about 45minutes. (as you can see from my picture, I forgot the turning part...oops!)

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream, or yogourt, or sour cream.

We topped ours with some maple flakes and a dollop of sour cream, they were heavenly.

Vanilla Sugar

Method 1: Place 1 cup sugar in a small bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds with the edge of the knife. Rub the seeds into the sugar with your fingers until well incorporated . Save the rest for another use.

Method 2: This method is not instant the first time, but once you make the inital batch, you will have vanilla sugar at your fingertips all the time. Once you have scraped your vanilla beans, place the rest of the bean pod into a jar, and fill with sugar. Let sit for a few weeks, shaking periodically, and the vanilla flavour will infuse into your sugar. I top it up with new sugar when it gets low, and add vanilla bean pods whenever I use them. I remember my grandma having a jar of vanilla sugar with vanilla beans in her baking cupboard when I was little. I think she was on to something!

In the beginning, there was food!

I love to cook. Real food, with real ingredients, plain and simple. Cooking is one of my favourite past times. It all started with an easy bake oven, a very willing and culinary adventurous brother and a mom who encouraged us make anything we wanted, so long as we ate it. (And cleaned up the mess...) We came up with some absolutely noxious concoctions, which we dutifully ate, and mostly never made again. But it fostered a love of creativity in the kitchen which follows us both to this day. When I left home and moved into my first apartment, my then boyfriend (now husband of 16 years) and I ventured into the world of vegetarianism. Going back some 22 years ago, vegetarian cuisine was far from mainstream, and I had to get creative in order to keep us fed. I remember we ate a whole lot of pasta in the beginning! But, a few cookbooks, disasters, and even more successes later, I became quite confident in the kitchen. Being vegetarian for close to 15 years encouraged us to try a lot of different foods that we probably never would have tried, and made us, I think, much more adventurous eaters. We have since started eating chicken and fish again, but still avoid red meat. This sometimes seems limiting, recipe wise, but I love to try and adapt recipes to suit our habits, substituting when possible and coming up with new and fun food to try all the time. We are not ones to eat the same thing time and time again, although we do have our tried and true favourite recipes. I am also kind of famous for not using recipes at all, which can be awkward when someone really likes it and wants the recipe! My grandma was like this as well, I am still trying to re-create her rhubarb pie! It consisted of a bit of this and some of that, and was awesome, to say the least. I have come close, but the exact recipe still eludes me, it is a springtime quest every year, with me trying a few new recipes when the rhubarb comes up in my garden. The more I think about this whole blogging thing, the better I think it is, because it will force me to write down what I do!


For my very first post, I figured I would share the pear tart that I made for Thanksgiving dinner at my mom’s house. It is the perfect blend of pastry, custard, and ripe pears, a very nice finish for a turkey dinner! I found the original recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ , one of the recipe sites that I use quite often. I have tweaked it to fit my Pampered Chef pie plate and my taste buds. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Pear Custard Tart

Makes 1- 10" pie

Pastry (1/4 of the recipe to follow)

6 ripe pears (I have used Bartlett, but I imagine any would do) peeled and cut into 1/8's


Custard:

1/3 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

6 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon to taste (optional)

Roll out pastry and fit into pie plate. Flute edges, or decorate as desired. (I used a small snowman cookie cutter, and cut enough to fit around the entire edge overlapping so only the round body showed. I then poked a hole in the bottom so it resembled the bottom of a pear. I dampened this and sprinkled with sugar for a fancier look.)

Peel, core and cut pears into 8 wedges. Lay them in circles to fit the pie plate, small ends towards the middle.

Beat the sugar and the butter till creamy. Beat in Eggs one at a time, until fluffy. Add vanilla and flour, beat till well mixed. Pour evenly over the pears. Sprinkle cinnamon on top if desired.

Bake for 1 hour in 350 preheated oven, until pears are soft and custard is set in the center. Cool completely before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Perfect Pastry

5 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp salt

1 lb shortening (you can use lard, but I chose the non animal based shortening)

1 egg

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Cold water to make 1 cup

Measure dry ingredients into large bowl, and mix well.

Cut shortening into smaller pieces, add to flour mixture and cut in with pastry blender until whole mixture looks crumbly.

Beat egg in measuring cup. Add vinegar, and then add cold water to make a total of 1 cup of liquids. Stir into dry ingredients with a fork to distribute, and then use hands to mix until it begins to stick together. Divide into 4 pieces. ***I put each piece into a sandwich size zip lock bag, flatten and expel excess air before zipping. It makes it very easy to store and quick to thaw.

Keeps in fridge for 2 weeks, freezes very well.