Salt Roasted Pears with Caramel Sauce

After making so many sweet bakery treats I was ready for something different.  Inspired by this photo of Salt Roasted Pears on marthastewart.com I decided to try it out.

This was simply divine.  The pears were soft but very moist and the combination of caramel with a touch of salt was perfect. My mom, who was a bit skeptical when she saw the pan filled with salt was pleasantly surprised.  I think this would be make a simple but elegant end to a fall dinner party.

In the interest of full disclosure 1 tried the caramel sauce that came with this 2 times with no success and went back to an old standby of mine.  To me it seemed to dry and too low heat. My old standby had more water at a higher heat. I used a loaf pan which worked perfectly.

Salt Roasted Pears with Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Marthastewart.com

Serves 6

6 Bosc pears
1 1/2 pounds coarse salt

Caramel Sauce
1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Arrange the pears upright in an 8 inch ceramic dish that is 4 inches deep.  cover pears with salt, allowing stems to stick out.  Bake until pears are tender when pricked with a fork, 60 to 75 minutes.

Remove pears from the salt, allowing a small amount to cling to each pear.  Place each pear on a serving plate, Pour caramel sauce over top, and serve.

Caramel Sauce

Pour the sugar into the center of a saucepan.  Pour 1/3 cup water around the walls of the pan.  So not stir; draw your finger through the center of sugar to moisten it.  Over high heat, bring to a full boil and cook without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally to even out the color, until the mixture is medium caramel in color, 5 to 10 minutes.  Immediately turn off the heat and use a wooden spoon to slowly stir in the cream.  It will bubble and may splatter.