Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray.

Pears: Cut butter into pieces and place in small saucepan.

Heat butter over medium heat, stirring frequently until just golden brown with a slightly nutty aroma (foam will subside and you'll see little brown flecks).

Remove from heat. Keep an eye on it as browned butter can burn easily and will continue to cook in the pan even after it's removed from heat.

Measure out 3 Tbsp of brown butter and set aside.

Combine sugar, flour, spices, salt and remaining brown butter and mix with a fork.

Place a pear half cut-side down on a cutting board. Lay chopsticks or thin wooden spoon handles on either side (lengthwise) of the pear. Make cuts (crosswise) about 1/8 inch apart , but don't cut all the way through. The chopsticks will prevent you from slicing straight through.

Repeat with remaining pear halves.

Place cut pears flat side down in prepared pan. Drizzle with reserved brown butter and cover pan with aluminum foil.

Bake for 30 mins.

Remove foil and top with streusel evenly over pears. You can nudge some of the slices apart so the topping sneaks in.

Return to oven, uncovered and continue to bake until golden, an additional 20 minutes or so. If you prefer your topping a little more browned, you can set the dish under the broiler for a minute or two, being careful not to burn.

Let pears rest for a few minutes in the pan before serving.

Goat cheese whipped cream: Beat goat cheese with 1/4 cup cream until combined.

Add remaining cream, sugar and vanilla bean seeds.

Whip until mixture holds soft peaks.

Pears can be served warm or room temperature garnished with goat cheese whipped cream and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds if desired.