Gingered Pears on Lemon Shortbread

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. n a bowl, cream the butter, lemon zest and sugar. Blend in the flour with your fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly.
3. Place a 10-cm (4-inch) in diameter round cookie cutter on the baking sheet. Drop in 1/6 of the dough and press with your fingers. Remove the cutter and, if necessary, run a knife around the inside of the cutter to help the dough release. Repeat for all 6 shortbreads. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. With the rack in the middle position, preheat the oven to 170 °C (325 °F). Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven before the cookies turn golden brown. Right out of the oven, sprinkle the cookies with a little sugar. Cool completely on a rack.
5. Peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the core. In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar and ginger to a boil. Add the pears, cover and simmer gently for about 5 minutes. Cool the pears in the syrup. Drain. With a fine sieve, strain the syrup and remove the ginger. Pour the syrup back into the saucepan and reduce by half.
6. To serve, place a scoop of ice cream in the centre of a shortbread cookie. Press a pear half into the ice cream at an angle and drizzle with ginger syrup.