If something tastes good, it doesn’t matter whether it is `authentic’ or prepared `correctly’–what works, works. For this easy dessert, I cover pear halves with frozen puff pastry and serve them right in the gratin dish in which they are baked. You can use apples instead of pears, if you prefer.
6 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large ripe Bartlett pears (about 8 ounces each)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (about 8 ounces; ½ package), partially defrosted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup water
Crème fraîche or sour cream, for serving (optional)
Excerpted from JACQUES PÉPIN QUICK & SIMPLE © 2020 by Jacques Pépin. Photography © 2020 by Tom Hopkins. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. Illustrations by Jacques Pepin
Keywords: bartlett pears, quick, simple, healthy, puff pastry, pears, apples