Treat Yourself Like Royalty By Making These Delightful Roasted Pears

In my family, fruit has long been considered the ultimate luxury gift. To us, nothing was more exciting than receiving a Harry & David Fruit-of-the-Month Club subscription. We eagerly anticipated fall, a time when October's pears and November's apples — varieties that we didn't have access to — arrived on our doorstep.

Even when I went to college, I still received gifts of gourmet fruit and other foods from my uncle. I'm pretty sure I was the only first-year student toting Royal Riviera Pears, dried Turkish apricots, and boxes of nuts up from the dorm mailroom.

Today, I'm still very much into fruit, and one of my favorite things to do with it is bake it with cheese and some form of dough. The type of cheese and pastry depends on the grain and flavor profile of the fruit. The potable pairings are an easy crowd-pleaser: think wine or port.

With intensely flavored, silky Royal Riviera Pears, a moderately pungent blue cheese is a good match. Another ideal yet surprising partner? Cookies. Specifically, Cheryl's Buttercream Frosted Cinnamon Pumpkin Cookies. Acting as a base, these perfectly spiced treats add butter, cinnamon, and pumpkin notes from the bottom up. They also absorb the honeyed pear juices, tart drops of lemon, and finishing drizzles of molasses as the fruit bakes in the oven.

With a crumbled blue cheese filling that includes chewy dried apricots and toasty, salted walnuts, this sweet and savory dessert becomes symbolic: my vision of autumn in a baking dish, and a reminder of all the fruity goodness Mother Nature has to offer.