Best Pear Parfaits Recipes

APRICOT GINGER PEAR PARFAITS

Steps:

• Peel 4 pears (2 pounds) and coarsely chop (including cores), then transfer to a 3- to 4-quart saucepan. Add apricots, ginger, water, 2 tablespoons sugar, zest, cinnamon stick, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice and simmer, covered, until pears are very tender, about 20 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick and force mixture through food mill into a bowl. If desired, stir in up to 1 tablespoon additional sugar and cool sauce.
• While sauce is cooling, peel, core, and finely dice (1/3 inch) remaining 2 pears (1 pound), then toss with remaining tablespoon lemon juice in a bowl.
• Spoon 1/4 cup sauce into each of 6 (8-ounce) glasses and top each serving with 2 tablespoons diced pear. Then spread 2 tablespoons yogurt in each glass and top with 2 more tablespoons diced pear and 1/4 cup sauce.

PEAR PARFAITS

Steps:

• Combine yogurt and sugar. Place three to four pear slices in each of four parfait glasses; top each with 2 tablespoons cracker crumbs and 3 tablespoons yogurt mixture. Repeat layers. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Refrigerate until serving.

AMARETTO PEAR PARFAITS

Steps:

• Combine pears through sugar and liqueur, cover and chill 1 hour.
• Spoon layers into each of 4 8-oz glasses in this order: 1 Tbs crumbs, 3 Tbs pear mixture, 3 Tbs yogurt or frozen yogurt. Repeat layers.
• Sprinkle 1 Tbs almonds over top of each parfait. Chill until serving time.

SAUTEED PEAR PARFAITS

Steps:

• Melt the butter and sugar in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently until sugar begins to caramelize, about 2 minutes. Add the pears and rosemary, raise heat to high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until pears are browned and caramelized all over, 3 to 5 minutes. (If pears begin to burn, reduce heat to medium.) Remove the pears, and spread out on a plate to cool.
• Place saute pan back on high heat, and add 1/4 cup water, stirring up the browned sugar and butter. Cook, stirring and swirling pan, until reduced to a thick syrup.
• Layer pears in four small glasses, alternating with the sour cream for two layers of each. Drizzle some of the syrup over each serving, sprinkle with crystal sugar, and serve.

PEAR AND SWEET WINE GELATIN PARFAITS

Steps:

• Place Jell-O in large bowl. Bring 1 cup Muscat and 1/2 cup water to boil in medium saucepan. Pour over Jell-O in bowl; stir until dissolved, about 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally. Stir in seltzer (mixture will be foamy). Refrigerate until Jell-O is set, at least 6 hours or overnight. Mix chopped pears and remaining 1/4 cup Muscat in small bowl. Spoon half of Jell-O into 4 wine goblets or parfait glasses, dividing equally. Top with pear mixture, then remaining Jell-O. Garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.

GINGERSNAP-CARAMEL PEAR PARFAITS

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 400 degrees. Melt butter in a 9-by-13-inch pan in the preheating oven until nutty golden. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter in the pan, then place pears, cut sides down, over sugar. Bake until pears are tender when poked with a sharp knife and sauce is thick and caramel colored, about 40 minutes. Remove pears from sauce to a plate with a slotted spoon. Pour sauce in a measuring cup. (You should have about 1 cup of sauce. If not, simmer to reduce, or add water to equal 1 cup.) Cool pears and sauce to room temperature. (At this point, you can remove skin from the pears with a knife, if you want.) Cut each pear half into 8 chunks. When ready to assemble, whip cream into soft peaks, gradually adding sugar. Beat in 2 Tbs. of brandy. Set aside. Place 24 gingersnaps on a cookie sheet and lightly brush with some of the brandy. Work quickly; the cookies will soften in places, making them difficult to transfer. Arrange 3 cookies in each of 8 goblets. Drizzle each with some of the caramel sauce (about 1/3 cup total), a dollop of whipped cream and 4 pieces of pear. Lightly brush remaining 16 cookies with brandy and repeat layering with 2 cookies, 1/3 cup caramel sauce, whipped cream and 4 pieces of pear. Drizzle with remaining 1/3 cup caramel sauce, and cover each goblet with plastic wrap. Refrigerate parfaits and remaining whipped cream until serving time. To serve, garnish each goblet with a dollop of whipped cream and top with a couple slivers of candied ginger.