Poached Pears
Desserts are not my strong suit and I am always looking for an easy way out. Baking is precise and demanding so I basically avoid it all costs. You will not see elaborate desserts on these pages unless I can convince my son, the expert, to contribute!
I decided to switch to a white wine rather than a red; I thought it would look more elegant for a New Year’s Eve party of two (thanks, COVID)!
Poached Pears
Ingredients
- 2 pears – I used Bosc, but you can use Anjou as well
- 3 cups of white wine
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 vanilla bean – scrape some of the seeds and save for the whipped cream
- 1 lemon (will use both juice and rind)
- 1-2 cinnamon sticks – you can be creative with spices: add ginger, star anise, the odd fennel seed, anything you enjoy.
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Directions
- In a sauce pan, add the wine, the juice and rind of a lemon, the vanilla bean, the cinnamon stick and the sugar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
- Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact.
- Lower the pears gently in the poaching liquid, making sure they’re mostly covered.
- Most recipes will tell you these babies are ready in 20 min…I must’ve had the pears from hell because after 40 min they were still hard as a rock. So, use your judgement. You want them soft, not mushy.
- Remove the pears and continue to boil the liquid until you have a syrupy consistency. Cool.
- In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar and the scraped vanilla seeds until soft peaks.
- Serve the pear with a good amount of syrup and a dollop of cream on top.
All photos are the work of my very talented, professional photographer husband, Dariusz Terepka.