This elegant and easy recipe for pears and cream bakes up in no time for an elegant, creamy, dreamy dessert full of poached pear flavor. Baked pears never tasted so good!
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Why we love this recipe
I am a great believer that every once in a while, you should throw your family a total curve ball at dinner time. As in, something that they would never in their wildest dreams have expected to find on their supper plate.
In our house, that means, yes, dessert for dinner. And while sometimes I throw a complete curve ball with something chocolate, I usually go for something that has a nice amount of fruit in it.
So one night not so long ago, I served up a warm, creamy, cinnamon-sugary baked pears in vanilla cream sauce.
It sounds all fancy, but all you have to do is pop some peeled pears in a baking dish with some sugar and butter and cream, sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar, and you have magically created a 5 star restaurant dessert in about a half hour.
It’s an easy and elegant dessert that would be the perfect ending to a special occasion dinner party, but when you serve it up on a Tuesday night for supper? It might taste even better!
Ingredients you need
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Pears: You can use any variety you like. We like the sweet and buttery taste of Bartlett pears, but if you like your pears more on the crisp side, Bosc pears are a good choice.
- Heavy Cream: Yep, you have to go for the heavy cream (also called whipping cream) for this recipe to get the right texture. No light cream allowed. 🥰
- Cinnamon sugar: If you don’t have this on hand, a tablespoon of regular sugar with about 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together will do just fine.
- Vanilla: This is optional – we like the extra flavor, but if you want this to taste more pear-like you can leave it out.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to make this recipe
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 450. While you are waiting for it to preheat, peel two pears (we use a vegetable peeler for this), cut them in half and scoop out the core with a spoon.
Step 2: Place your pears cut side down. Sprinkle them with some sugar and dot them with butter. Pop them in the oven for 15 minutes.
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Step 3: Mix some cream together with a little vanilla (or just use plain cream) and pour it over the baked pears. Pop them back in the oven for another 5 minutes, then take them out and sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. We like to let them cool for about 15 minutes before serving them up.
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Recipe FAQs
Nope! We like the sweetness of Bartlett pears, but crisp pears like the brown Bosc variety will work too, and everything in between.
You can prep it up to the point where you put it in the oven, but save those steps for before you serve it. Your pears may turn a little brown if they are peeled ahead – cover them with plastic wrap and pop them in the fridge and that may help. They are still going to taste amazing!
Pop your question in the Comments section below and I will answer pronto!
Other fruit desserts we love
Looking for more dessert inspiration? Here is our complete collection of dessert recipes!
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PrintPears in Vanilla Cream Sauce
This elegant and easy recipe for pears and cream sauce bakes up in no time for an elegant, creamy, dreamy dessert.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 2 pears
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons soft butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450.
- Peel pears and cut them in half length-wise. Scoop out the core and place in a buttered baking pan, cut side down. Sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Mix cream and vanilla together and bake for 5 minutes more.
- Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, cool for 15 minutes and serve warm.
Notes
- Pears: You can use any variety you like. We like the sweet and buttery taste of Bartlett pears, but if you like your pears more on the crisp side, Bosc pears are a good choice.
- Heavy Cream: Yep, you have to go for the heavy cream (also called whipping cream) for this recipe to get the right texture. No light cream allowed. 🥰
- Cinnamon sugar: If you don’t have this on hand, a tablespoon of regular sugar with about 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together will do just fine.
- Vanilla: This is optional – we like the extra flavor, but if you want this to taste more pear-like you can leave it out.
Mimi Rippee says
Really nice. I’d much rather have this dish than wine-poached pears. Thanks!
http://www.chefmimiblog.com
So glad you like this one!
Leslie Anne says
Exactly a pear and cream recipe I was looking for. I wanted a poached pear recipe but all of them were not to my liking and took some times ridiculous long times steaming on the stove top. This is exactly what I was searching for. And there is no long wait period. You can still doll it up if you like with other ingredients like a dash of wine or citrus of choice but I am allergic to cinnamon but know how to work around that. This is so simple and I recieved a box of 6 pears for my BD from David and what Harry or those guys:)) I unwrapped the gold foiled one. Want to share with hubby just the two of us. And had hoped they would be ready on my BD tomorrow but not quite ripe enough yet. Not sure how long these will keep in the fridge like traditional poached pears which are 4-12 days. Probably depends on the amount of citrus and wine if used. I intend to enjoy a few pears just eating them but had hoped to prepare 2-4 this way too. Oh my maybe they’ll be ready by Feb 14….that’s another 3 days out but something special for my Valentine who’s now 84 years old and we’ll have just passed our 50th anniversary on my BD too. And I bought some beautiful freeze dried strawberries covered in hard shelled dark chocolate that would go perfectly with this style of poached pears too. Yummy. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Leslie Anne and thank you so much for writing! I’m delighted that you like the sound of this pear recipe, and Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary and Happy Valentine’s Day – sounds like you have a wonderful Valentine dinner planned out for that special Valentine of yours! :)
Chris says
I tried this recipe with walnuts but the vanilla cream sauce came out brown. Is that expected? I was hoping for more of a while sauce.
Hi Chris! The sauce does take on a light golden brown color, like the sauce in the picture in the post. If it is a deep brown that might mean it cooked a bit too long – but it should still taste good! Hope this helps?
easy video recipes says
One of my absolute favorites. It’s such an elegant dish.
Joanne says
I approve of this dessert for dinner mentality. ANd, I mean, there was fruit in the dish so it’s totally acceptable!
I am seriously considering making dessert for dinner a weekly thing. We all need to get more fruit in our lives, after all!
Mir says
You are hilarious! Love those pics of you stomach-down in the grass. But hey, you gotta get the shot somehow.
These look really good! And usually I’m not a fruit for dessert person, but in this case? Yeah!
Yep, we gotta do what we gotta do to get the shot! :) And try it for actual dinner!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Dinner, dessert, I’d take these pears any way I could get them! They look PERFECT!
Thanks Trish! I’m thinking breakfast might be totally reasonable, too. LOVE your site, btw!
Laura @ Laura's Culinary Adventures says
What an elegent desert!
Thank you so much! It made for a pretty fun dinner, too. :)
Maura Cooper says
I *know* you’re a photographer among other things but I swear when I saw that I thought it was a painting! High praise in case ya didn’t know.
Maura! Thanks for those sweet words. :)