Brown butter, chestnut honey, and thyme roasted pears

These are, in a word, delicious.

How can they not be? You can cut through the pears like butter and oh, that great nuttiness of the butter and chestnut honey.

You already know I love chestnut honey, but you can always substitute a darker flower honey or maple syrup.

(adapted from Melissa Clark’s Cook This Now)

You’ll need:

• 2 slightly soft Bosc pears
• 3 T butter
• 2/3 cup chestnut honey
• 5-6 sprigs thyme
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 T lemon zest
• small pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Peel and core the pears; cut them in half.

2. Heat up butter in an oven-proof skillet or deep pan, cook until frothy, then reduce heat and brown lightly, about 5 minutes.

3. Add pears, cut-side down, cook until golden about 2-3 minutes. Flip and repeat on the other side.

4. Take off heat. Add thyme and a small pinch of salt to the pan. Pour honey and lemon juice over the pears and flip back over so that they are cut-side down again.

5. Bake until just tender, about 12-15 minutes. I like to peek in on them and baste the pears in the syrup as they bake – the fragrance is just amazing.