Mulled Pear and Almond Crisp

My family got a box of those fancy pears this Christmas. Then another.
Pear overload.
-pressure -
What to do?
Wine and baking!
right?

Mulled Pear and Almond Crisp
- 6 bosc pears, peeled
- 1 c red wine
- 1/4 c brandy
- whole nutmeg, cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, knob fresh ginger
- 1/4 honey
- 1 lb blanched almonds
- 1 c sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 3 tbsp butter
Place nutmeg, cinnamon cloves and ginger in a cheesecloth and tie closed. Bring wine to a boil, turn off heat, stir in the honey, and steep the cheesecloth spice bag in the mixture for five minutes. Pour in the brandy, place the pears in the pot, and simmer, basting the pears for 15 minutes or so. Make sure to rotate the pears so that each side gets a chance to soak in the wine. When pears are tender, but not soft, remove from pot and let them cool. Continue cooking down wine/honey mixture until reduced to a thick syrup.
Meanwhile, in a food processor, grind almonds into a fine powder, then pour in the sugar and almond extract, and then the butter, and pulse to combine till crumbly.Slice pears thin and layer in a greased baking dish and then pour the wine syrup over top.

Dust with cinnamon and then top with the ground almond mixture.
Bake at 350 until golden brown and crispy on top - about 25 minutes. Serve warm, room temperature or cold with whipped cream or ice cream. Enjoy.

Fig and Pear Strudel

Not only does Santa not bring Broccoli-Rab, he doesn't bring Figs either. Not fresh ones anyway. I'd been planning on making a fresh Fig and Pear strudel for Christmas dessert, but alas. So I settled on dried figs, and changed my tactics a little bit. The results?
Freakin delicious.

Fig and Pear Strudel
- 3/4 lb dried Mission Figs, slice thin
- 5 ripe pears, peeled and cubed
- 1/4 c brandy
- 1/4 maple syrup
- 10 sheets Phyllo Dough
- 3/4 c bread crumbs
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon

Toss figs and pears in brandy and maple syrup, and set aside to marinate and soften for at least 2 hours.
When ready to make and bake; Preheat oven to 350. Mix breadcrumbs, sugar, and cinnamon. Set aside. Lay a clean towel on the counter and then a single sheet of Phyllo - brush with melted butter, sprinkle evenly with breadcrumb mixture, then top with another Phyllo layer, and repeat. Do this four times, until you lay on the 5th Phyllo sheet. Leaving a one inch margin on the left, spoon out figs/pears in a 3 inch wide strip, then starting from the left side, roll up the strudel, rolling gently but tight. Put on a greased cookie sheet, and brush with melted butter and a sprinkle of sugar.
Repeat this process for the second strudel.
These can be made ahead of time and baked right before you are ready. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, until tops are golden brown and flaky. Let sit for 5 minutes, then cut into 2 inch pieces with a serrated knife.
Serve warm with whipped cream.

Maine in a Bowl

What says Maine more than Blueberries?
Lobster.
And so, as any mom anywhere (even in Maine) would say, it wouldn't be right to have dessert before dinner...
Although, like every time, it feels like I left a little of my soul behind in Maine, I brought something home with me too; fresh-picked Maine corn and fresh-caught Maine lobster! We got the lobster from a friend of the family, a lobsterman, who keeps his boat on the dock next door, and the corn came from a local farm that grows Sugar and Butter corn - a sweeter, more robustly-flavored variety that eclipses its tasteless Silver Queen cousin that is so common down here.Lobster, Corn, Green Beans... it was nice to have a little bit of Maine left at the end of a long and depressing drive home, and to top it all off, we had a quart of fresh-picked Maine blueberries that my aunt had sent me home with.
And what could go better with blueberries (or anything for that matter), or be more MAINE, than Maple Syrup? Add some gingersnaps from the country store and vanilla ice cream, and you have a fresh, crunchy, sweet and simply delicious farewell helping of Maine in a Bowl!

Maine in a Bowl
- fresh Blueberries
- 100% pure Maple Syrup
- Ginger Snaps, crushed
- Vanilla Ice CreamIn a small saucepan combine berries and maple syrup at about a 3 to 1 ratio (1 c berries, 1/3 c syrup). Bring to a quick boil and then reduce to simmer just until berries are softened but not bursting. Scoop ice cream into a bowl, top with crushed ginger snaps and a handful of fresh berries, and then top with spoonfuls of blueberry-maple compote.

Grandma's Cookie Pie

I had barely been in Maine for five minutes before my Aunt told me I couldn't leave without making a Cookie Pie. In this family, Cookie Pie is more than a favorite; it's a tradition, or possible so favorite that it exceeds tradition. At first I made it only every thanksgiving, and would delight Grandma by calling for the recipe which I could never seem to remember but always manage to misplace. But then I started getting requests for Christmas and then birthdays, and now this, as a trade for my freedom (as if I even wanted to leave...)

Grandma treated this recipe with great secrecy and would always hand it over grudgingly, making a great story of how she practically had to beat it out of an unsympathetic chef in a New England diner. But she eventually secured the cherished recipe...albeit from the back of a Hershey Bar!
So, thanks to that stubborn chef, or Mr. Hershey, but mostly thanks to Grandma, I, my family, and now the rest of the world are able to enjoy the warm, chocolatey, artery-clogging goodness that is cookie pie.

COOKIE PIE(makes 1 pie)
- 2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 c flour
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c brown sugar

- 2 eggs

- 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
- pecans (optional)

Melt and cool butter. Mix flour and sugars in a bowl, add egg and mix, and then add butter. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using, and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is brown and the top of the pie looks crispy. Because of all the butter in the pie, it will not be firm when you take it out of the oven, and may not appear done in the middle, but if you leave it in longer, the crust will burn. What I've found is that it sets as it cools, and no one has ever complained of a Cookie Pie being too gooey... Serve warm with ice cream, or room temperature, or try it cold out of the fridge the next day. Just don't eat it all in one sitting, or at least have an EKG on hand...

variations: consider using peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips or white chocolate chips, depending on your fancy, and you can also try adding banana, raisins, or anything else you would think about putting in a cookie.

(I would love to try making an Oatmeal Raisin version of this, but no one in my family has let me so far. Let me know if you give it a try!)