"Power liqueur"

Bartletts are my favourite pears. Large, juicy, their juice running down your fingers. I used to love taking them to school as packed lunch, even if the risk of finding them squashed to a pulp was high...
It is just lovely to keep their flavour and aroma in a transparent bottle:-) Best soak them in spirits slightly diluted with water, but it is a bit too strong for me. I prefer to use pure vodka, possibly strengthened with spirits.













"Power liqueur"

- a few pears without stalks, but not peeled or seeded to make the aroma richer
- unflavoured vodka
- a vanilla stick cut in half
- sugar

Place the pears in a glass jar. Cover with alcohol up to 2 cm above the fruit. Add vanilla stick and close well. Leave in a warm, bright place for a few months, until spring if possible. Remove the alcohol and save it, mix the fruit with sugar and leave for two weeks and then mix the resulting juice with the alcohol you removed earlier. Filter into the bottles and wait till new pears ripen. It is worth it!
One more thing: cut the pears with a plastic or silver knife, this way they will not darken and your liqueur will retain a nice colour:-)