Asian Spiced Roasted Pears

Name: Asian Spiced Roasted Pears
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil); 1.5 teaspoons five spice powder (dried ground (Chinese 5 spice)); 1 teaspoon cinnamon (dried ground); 2 tablespoons honey (or maple syrup to keep vegan); 1 teaspoon vanilla (extract); 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or juice of 1 whole lemon); 4 whole pears; Homemade Coconut Whipping Cream (- optional garnish)

Published: Feb 8, 2013 · Modified: Jan 17, 2025 by HWC Magazine · 76 Comments

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Asian Spiced Roasted Pears are warm, cozy, and sweetened with the aromatics of Chinese five spice powder, cinnamon, honey, and vanilla. This easy six ingredient Chinese dessert is baked to perfection and topped with a little coconut whipped cream or ice cream. It’s the ultimate lightly sweet treat at the end of a Chinese New Year feast or gathering.

This Asian pear recipe was originally published in 2013. We updated the photos, added step by steps and a video in January 2025.

Asian Spiced roasted pears on a black plate topped with coconut whipped topping.

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Recipe Perks
Ingredients
How to Roast Pears?
Recipe Tips
Whole Star Anise and Cinnamon Twills
How to Core a Pear without a Melon Baller?
Vegan Options
Storage and Reheating
More Asian Desserts
Asian Spiced Roasted Pears

Recipe Perks

While these Asian spiced pears bake in your oven, your whole house smells like a gorgeous bouquet of sweet goodness.
Roasting the pears in half, allows some of the natural sweet juices and spiced honey mixture to pool in the hollow created by removing the core. The 5 spiced sauce is pure liquid gold – not to be missed!
Can be made in advance for easy entertaining. Enjoy the spiced pears hot out of the oven or at room temperature. We do not suggest serving this pear dessert chilled because cold foods are not good for your spleen qi.
Bakes in the oven to offer more room on the stovetop for stir frying or steaming.
Guilt-free fruit dessert! Lightly sweet, gluten-free, egg-free, and dairy-free.
Perfect fall dessert. Delicious served on top of coconut rice pudding with condensed milk.

Ingredients

Pears – The beauty of this recipe is you can use any type of pear you desire. We used a red Anjou pear but also delicious with bosc, Bartlett, Asian pear and more. However, the ripeness and time to cook will differ depending on the type of pear used.

Lemon – prevents oxidation (browning of the pears) and gives the Asian spiced roasted pears a nice balance in both sweet and tart flavor.

Chinese Five Spice Powder – is a classic spice mixture including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and Sichuan pepper. You are probably wondering, what does 5 spice powder taste like? The spice is warming with notes of licorice and a little tongue numbing sensation from the Sichuan pepper at the end. It’s a must have ingredient for any Chinese kitchen so you can make recipes like General Tso’s chicken wings and Tofu Vegetable Pancakes.

Cinnamon – extra cinnamon is always a good thing. Have you ever noticed that if something is sprinkled with cinnamon- your brain thinks you are eating something sweet. The bonus is that you do not need to add extra sugar or sweeteners to achieve the sweet flavor. In addition, cinnamon has antibacterial properties, according to a study in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science. It’s delicious way to ward of the cold and flu season.

Butter – or coconut oil to keep it dairy free and vegan. It adds a little flavor and prevents the spiced pears from sticking to the pan while baking.

Vanilla extract – balances out the rich warm flavors of Asian spiced pears.

How to Roast Pears?

Buttering the dish and making the 5 spiced honey sauce.

Pre-heat oven to 375°F (190°C)
Grease 9 x 13 baking pan
Add butter or coconut oil, cinnamon, 5 spice powder and honey in a bowl. Microwave for approximately 30 seconds or until the butter is melted and the honey is runny. Add vanilla and stir well.

Coring the pears and drizzling on a little lemon juice.

Prepare pears by slicing in half and removing the core.
Drizzle pears with lemon juice to prevent oxidation.

Drizzling the pears with Chinese 5 spiced honey sauce and then showing them roasted.

Place pears in baking pan and drizzle with five spiced butter honey mixture.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until fork tender.

Recipe Tips

Choose pears that are still firm but have a slight give when pressed. If they are over-ripe, they will fall apart in the oven. On the other hand, if they are not ripe enough, they will not be sweet.
Keep the stem on as it makes for a super cute presentation.
Save Time: Keep the skin on to provide structure for the pears while they bake.
Drizzle on the lemon juice as soon as you cut and core the pears to prevent oxidation.
If you don’t have an oven, try our stove top Chinese pear dessert soup for a quick and easy guilt-free dessert.

Baked pear dessert topped with homemade coconut whipped cream on a black plate garnished with dried star anise and cinnamon twills.

Whole Star Anise and Cinnamon Twills

If you have a fully stocked Asian Pantry, you may wish to use whole star anise ("Bat gok" in Cantonese and “Ba jiao" in Mandarin) and cinnamon twills instead of Chinese 5 spice powder for this pear dessert recipe.

In a small saucepan, add the butter, 5-star anise and 3 cinnamon twills and steep for approximately 10 minutes over low heat.
Add the honey.
Once the spices start to bloom, turn off the heat add the vanilla.
Remove the whole star anise and cinnamon twill spices.
Now you spiced honey “brown butter” to pour over the prepped pears before baking. Yum!

If you purchase delicious star anise, be sure to try our star anise braised bamboo shoots and braised orange anise lotus root recipes.

A baked pear half cut in half showing how juicy they are.

How to Core a Pear without a Melon Baller?

Did you know that you can use an ice cream scooper to core a perfectly ripe pear? Hey, either did we! In the middle of creating our Asian spiced roasted pear video, we realized we did not have a melon baller. Ayahh!

We scoured the kitchen looking for something firm to core the pears with easily. Some other ideas include using a metal teaspoon/tablespoon, regular spoon, or knife. Now you can add ice cream scooper to the list of everyday items to core the pears if you do not have a melon baller. So, there you have it!

Asian spiced roasted pears on a black plate garnished with star anise and cinnamon twills.

Vegan Options

To keep this baked Asian pear recipe vegan, use coconut oil or vegan butter instead butter. Swap the honey with maple syrup or your favorite sweetener.

Storage and Reheating

Asian spiced roasted pears can be kept in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

Oven Method: 350°F (176°C) for about 10 minutes or until toasty warm.

Microwave Method: On high heat, microwave at 30-second intervals until toasty warm.

More Asian Desserts

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5 from 4 votes