Pears with Cranberries, Nuts and Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Pears with Cranberries, Walnuts and Cinnamon Whipped Cream is a quick and easy, impressive and scrumptious way to end any special meal!

this Recipe

One summer, I was invited to Vail, Colorado to teach a private cooking class for a woman who wanted to be able to prepare a few easy, elegant dinners for friends. She didn’t have much experience cooking, so she wanted dishes with shorter ingredient lists, that relied on basic cooking techniques. I put together two special menus for her – one featuring fish and one with beef – and created this recipe for Pears with Cranberries, Walnuts and Cinnamon Whipped Cream as a dessert that would fit either dinner.

These pears are super easy to prepare: simply halve and core Anjou pears (I like to use a melon baller to remove the core), fill the now hollow core with dried cranberries and chopped walnuts, then drizzle with a lemon juice-honey-vanilla-cinnamon mixture and bake until tender and juicy.

Lastly, top these delectable, pretty pears with an amazing cinnamon whipped cream. (I have a hard time not eating all of the whipped cream before serving the pears – it’s that yummy.) Sometimes I even amp the flavor up yet another notch and add rum to the whipped cream!

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Pears with Cranberries, Nuts and Cinnamon Whipped Cream

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Pears with Cranberries, Walnuts and Cinnamon Whipped Cream is a quick and easy, impressive and scrumptious way to end any special meal!

• Yield: 6 servings 1x

Ingredients

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Pears with Cranberries and Walnuts

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 medium-to-ripe pears (preferably Anjou), cut in half (stem to base) and cored

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 heaping tablespoons powdered (confectioners) sugar

2 tablespoons light rum (or more, to taste), optional

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

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Instructions

Pears with Cranberries and Walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 by 12-inch baking dish with parchment paper, or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, honey, vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. Place the pear halves, cut side up, in the prepared baking dish. Divide cranberries evenly between the pears, stuffing into the hollow core. Sprinkle walnuts on top of cranberries, mixing them together a bit with your fingers.
4. Drizzle lemon-cinnamon mixture over the top of the pears and filling. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until tender.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

1. While the pears are baking, prepare the whipped cream: in a large mixing bowl, whisk the whipping cream, sugar, rum (if using), cinnamon and vanilla with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

Serve baked pears warm or at room temperature, topping each with a dollop of whipped cream.

Notes

Make ahead: Pears can be baked a few hours prior to serving, covered and kept at room temperature. I like to place them in a 300 degree oven to warm a bit before serving.

Note: Proportions for the cranberries and nuts are approximate, and depend on the size of the pears used.

• Author: (By Lee Clayton Roper)
• Category: easy entertaining, desserts, gluten free