Golden Wardens
Submitted by EREMITA
Golden Wardens are whole pears poached slowly in honey, white grape juice, and lemon until the syrup turns burnished and the fruit collapses to butter-soft. An English heritage dessert built for the hardest, most stubborn pears.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
75 minREADY
90 minGolden Wardens is an old English way to coax flavor out of cooking pears so hard they could double as doorstops. The technique is patience and gentle heat: peel, roll in lemon juice to keep them pale, lay them on their sides in a snug dish, and let honey and white grape juice work their slow magic.
Dessert pears like Bartlett or Anjou will be ready inside an hour. True winter cooking pears can take three hours or more before a knife slides in cleanly. Don’t rush it. Underdone pears stay grainy and chalky.
Basting is the move that earns these their name. Every twenty minutes or so, spoon the cooking liquid back over the fruit. The honey caramelizes lightly each time, building the deep amber color that gives Golden Wardens their nickname.
Finish by reducing the cooking liquid on the stove until it runs syrup-thick. Pour it back over the standing pears and you have a dessert that looks like it belongs in a still-life painting.
Chef Tips
- Choose pears that fit the dish snugly. Too much room and the liquid won’t reach high enough to baste the tops.
- Resist over-sweetening the syrup. The fruit’s natural acidity is what makes the dish, not sugar.
- Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or chilled with a dollop of mascarpone for contrast.
Variations
- Add a cinnamon stick, star anise, or two cloves to the cooking liquid for a mulled note.
- Swap white grape juice for red wine and reduce the honey for a more grown-up poached pear.
- Stuff the cored bottom of each pear with chopped walnuts and dried cranberries before baking.
Ingredients
Directions
Warden is the old name for the small hard cooking pear that used to grow in many country gardens.
The best way to cook them was slowly with honey and fruit juice to warm and round out their thin colour and flavour, but this recipe works well for dessert pears too.
Choose a casserole or baking dish with just enough room to lay pears head to tail in single layer.
Peel the pears thinly, leaving the stalks on, then immediately roll each one in a saucer containing the juice of the lemon.
Put the pears into the dish. Spoon on scant 4 tablespoons honey and add any lemon juice remaining in the saucer.
Bring the grape juice to simmering point and pour it over the pears.
Cover the dish and bake at 325 to 350 F (160-180 C) gas mark 3 to 4 until the fruit is beautifully tender.
How long this will take varies enormously - 1 hour is enough for semi-ripe dessert pears; 3 hours or more may be needed for pears so hard that they seem to be carved from wood.
Baste the pears frequently as they bake and turn them occasionally to encourage even cooking.
When the pears are ready, transfer them to a serving dish, standing them upright.
Boil the cooking liquid until it turns syrupy and is reduced by about half.
Stir in an extra tablespoon or two of honey if you think a little more sweetness is desirable but avoid the temptation to make the juices too sweet; the appeal of the dish lies in its fruitiness.
Spoon the syrupy glaze over the pears.
Serve warm or cold.
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