This is an exceptional recipe. Exceptional. I don’t use that word very often.
This is an Ottolenghi recipe from his website here.
The Ottolenghi lede to the recipe suggests these pears as a topping for pancakes or French toast. Trust me. These are wonderful with a generous scoop of the very best vanilla ice cream you can find.
Did I mention that this dish is beautiful?!
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Tahini and Miso Butter Baked Pears
April 18, 2026
Ingredients
- 3 firm pears (peeled, cored and cut into 6 wedges)
- 1/3 C. dark brown sugar
- 3 T. butter (cubed)
- 2 t. white miso
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 star anise pods
- 1/2 t. caraway seeds
- 2 lemons (2 strips zest and 2 t. juice)
- 2 T. tahini
- 1/4 t. flaky sea salt
- Roasted pecans for garnish
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Step 2 Peel and core pears and cut into 6 wedges. Arrange in a medium glass baking dish.
- Step 3 Sprinkle brown sugar over pears and dot with butter. Top with cinnamon stick, star anise, caraway and lemon zest strips. Wrap in foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- Step 4 Remove foil and baste the pears with the miso butter
- Step 5 it should be syrupy. Bake for another 25-35 minutes. You want the pears to be soft but hold their shape. They should begin to caramelize around the edges!
- Step 6 Remove from oven. Stir in lemon juice. Drizzle with tahini and sprinkle with salt.
- Step 7 Cook’s Note: To “up” the decadence factor of this wonderful dish, I sprinkled some roasted pecans on top of the dish at the time of serving.
