This ice cream combines the best of two worlds: deeply caramelized sugar and sweet, juicy pears. Use the ripest, most flavorful pears you can find, since you want the flavor of the pears to stand up to the slightly burnt taste of the caramel. I recommend Comice or Bartlett pears, which have a heady, roselike aroma when ripe. Don’t be alarmed if the sugar hardens and crackles when you add the pears. Keep cooking, and the pears will dissolve the caramelized sugar nicely.
Recipe information
Yield
makes about 1 quart (1 liter)
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Dice the pears into 1/4-inch (1-cm) pieces.
Step 2
Spread the sugar in a large, nonreactive, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook the sugar over medium heat, watching it carefully. When it begins to liquefy and darken at the edges, use a heatproof spatula to very gently stir the sugar, encouraging the heat of the liquefied sugar around the edges to moisten and melt the sugar crystals in the center.
Step 3
Once the sugar becomes deep amber, stir in the pear pieces. Some of the caramel will seize and harden, but as you cook the pears, use a heatproof utensil to stir them and melt any bits of hard caramel. Continue to cook the pears for 10 minutes, until the pieces are cooked through.
Step 4
Remove from the heat and stir in 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the cream, then mix in the remaining cream, along with the salt and a few drops of lemon juice.
Step 5
Let cool to room temperature, then purée in a blender or food processor until smooth. Press the mixture through a mesh strainer with a flexible rubber spatula to remove any tough pear fibers.
Step 6
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Variation
Step 7
For Pear, Caramel, and Ginger Ice Cream, add 1/3 cup (35 g) very finely chopped candied ginger to the ice cream during the last few minutes of churning.
Perfect Pairing
Step 8
Make Pear-Caramel Cream Puffs with Salted Butter Caramel and Chocolate Sauces and Buttercrunch Toffee Bits. Fill Profiteroles (page 232) with Pear-Caramel Ice Cream, and set them on a pool of Salted Butter Caramel Sauce (page 174). Scribble Lean Chocolate Sauce (page 165) over the cream puffs, then top with bits of well-crumbled Buttercrunch Toffee (page 200).
