Ingredients
Serves 22 pears (with their skins on), a firm variety is best
10g unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla sugar or CSR sugar
1 handful of amaretto biscuits, crushed to a coarse consistency
2 shots of amaretto liqueur
100ml of water
2 tbsp mascarpone
1 tsp orange zest
Icing sugar for dusting
Method
Use an apple corer or sharp knife to remove the core from the bottom end being sure to keep the tip intact, discard the core and any seeds.
Mix one shot of the amaretto liqueur and the crushed biscuits together and stuff quite firmly into the cavity where the core was.
Place the pears standing upright on a baking tray and rub the butter over the skin of the pears. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over each pear.
Pop the pears into an oven on 180°C. After 5 minutes drizzle the remaining amaretto shot and the water over the pears and continue to cook for a further 15 minutes or until soft.
Mix together the orange zest and the mascarpone.
Remove pears from the oven and serve immediately with any syrup that has formed in the bottom of the baking tray along with a dollop of mascarpone and a healthy dusting of icing sugar.