Recipe - Pear And Vanilla Upside Down Pancake

1 Vanilla bean; slit
lengthwise
One fourth cup Sugar
2/3 cup All purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking powder
One half teaspoon Baking soda
One fourth teaspoon Salt
One half Stick unsalted butter
One half cup Wellshaken buttermilk
2 lg Eggs
1 One half Firmripe bosc or bartlett
pears (about Three fourths pound)
1 tablespoon Fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrape vanilla seeds form pod into a small
bowl and add sugar. Rub sugar and seeds together to unclump seeds.

Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1
tablespoon vanilla sugar. In a well seasoned 10inch cast iron skillet melt
butter over moderately low heat and remove from heat. In a bowl whisk
together buttermilk, eggs, and 1 tablespoon melted butter, leaving
remaining butter in skillet, and whisk into flour mixture until just
combined. Let batter stand 15 minutes.

Peel and core pears and cut lengthwise into 1/4inch thick wedges. Add
pears to remaining vanilla sugar with lemon juice, tossing to coat. Arrange
pears decoratively in butter remaining in skillet. Sprinkle any remaining
sugar mixture over pears and cook over moderate heat until barely tender
and sugar begins to caramelize, about 8 minutes.

Pour batter evenly over pears and bake in middle of oven 15 minutes. Reduce
temperature to 350 degrees and bake 15 minutes more, or until top is golden
and center is firm to the touch.

Immediately run a thin knife around edge of skillet. Invert a plate over
skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly
pressed together). Carefully lift skillet off cake and replace any fruit
that is stuck to bottom of skillet. Serve pancake with syrup.

Yield: 2 servings

Recipe by: Cooking Live Show #CL8990

Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #903 by "Angele and Jon Freeman"
jfreeman@comteck.com on Nov 12, 1997