Baked Pear (or Apple) Batter Pudding

Combining batter with fruit is one of the simplest ways to put together a warm pudding for dessert. A familiar one is bird’s nest pudding, sometimes made with whole apples (the “eggs”) baked in a nest of custard.

These batter puddings turn up, in one form or another, in virtually every American cookbook. Some are more like pancakes; others, like this one, surround the fruit with a creamier custard.