Baked Pears are an awesome Autumnal treat

My Mum’s favourite time of year is Autumn. These baked pears never fail to remind me of afternoons before Easter spent in our old kitchen, tucking into an arvo tea and the warm light begins to fade over the back fence.

The lino in that kitchen was a faux tiled effect, alternating in terracotta red, brown, mustard yellow and a pale pear green. An old pine wardrobe we used a linen cupboard sat on the back wall; its strange panelling always looked to my sisters and I like deer with large sprawling antlers. Dust motes hung suspended in the air by streams of strong March light. The room really was ripe for nostalgia, all orange and warm in the sun.

This recipe is exactly the kind my Mum would have championed. She’s is an avid baker (in a kind of not-measuring or remembering recipes kind of way, see here for the family precedent), but rarely whips up chocolate mud cakes or pink icing floral confections. Her afternoon treats were always of a more wholesome variety filled with fruits and nuts and grains which as a child seemed terribly cruel additions, but now don’t seem so bad at all. As I’ve grown up (and matured?), I’ve come to appreciate the healthier treats my Mum was so keen on. Sweetness without blandness, colour that isn’t lurid but could be easily found in nature, these are treats I now seek out. Although I may never live down her entry for my primary school cooking book: a muffin recipe using the uneaten fruit she found hidden and bruised in the bottom of our backpacks. A resourceful woman if ever there was one.

I reckon these simple baked pears with no added refined sugar are the perfect way to while away the afternoon. Honestly, just ask my Mum.