French Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce (Poires Belle Hélène)
This classic French dessert poaches the season's best pears in an aromatic vanilla syrup, served with ice cream and a dark chocolate sauce.
The beauty of a simple dessert like ‘poires belle hélène’ is that ingredients need to be at their best. As we enter into pear season, varieties like ‘Williams’, ‘Conference’ or ‘Bosc’ pears offer plenty of contenders for this dessert, and I wouldn’t bother making this dessert any other time of year really. That exclusivity lends well to its roots in 1800’s Paris, when this dish was created by chef Auguste Escoffier. At that time, dishes were normally created as a temporary, fleeting honour to famous people and events, and even though they’re still enjoyed now, they serve as a useful bookmark and insight into fashions and tastes at the time. It’s something to think about as your spoon glides through tender pears poached in vanilla syrup, with cool vanilla ice cream and rich chocolate sauce to provide thrilling contrast. Despite the operatics of it all, it’s actually just a very simple and humble dessert made with honest ingredients. Good pears and good chocolate and you cannot do any wrong. One unusual note to add with my recipe: the fruit peelings are added to the syrup along with the pears. The reason being that apples and pears produce their most potent aromatics just beneath their skin, and we wouldn’t let that go to waste. Let’s go!
INGREDIENTS (serves 2x)
POACHING SYRUP
250g caster sugar
1x litre water
2x tablespoons lemon juice
2x strips lemon zest
2x cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1x vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
CHOCOLATE SAUCE
100g dark chocolate (60-75% cocoa solids)
140ml double cream
4 tablespoons poaching syrup (or honey)
1/4 tsp salt
To serve: vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, flaked almonds
WALKTHROUGH
First, let’s make the poaching syrup. In a saucepan, combine the 250g caster sugar, 1 litre of water, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 strips of lemon zest, vanilla, 2x cloves and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg. Place the pan over a heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, simmer the syrup for 10 minutes to infuse with the aromatics.
When the syrup is ready, we’ll prepare the pears. Peel the pears from top to bottom, leaving the woody stems intact. Keep the peelings aside for later. Slice off the bottom of the pears so they have a flat ‘foot’. Depending on the type of pear you use, they may have a chewy core. You can remove the core from the bottom of the pear by using the handle of a teaspoon to dig it out. If you are preparing a lot of pears (more than 4), you can put the pears into a bowl of water with some lemon juice to prevent them browning in the meantime.
When the pears are prepared, gently place them into the simmering pan of syrup. You can add the reserved peelings too if desired. The pears should be at least two-thirds covered by the syrup. Don’t worry, if you have extra room in the pan, the pears will have a tendency to bob up and fall over - it is absolutely fine if they do!
Simmer the pears in the syrup for 20 mins, or until a skewer goes through the centre with little resistance. The exact cooking time will vary depending on the type of pears and their ripeness. Once cooked, remove the pan from the heat and let the pears remain in the syrup until cool. At this stage, the pears can be served, or you can refrigerate them in a sealed container in their syrup for up to 2 days.
Before serving, let’s make the chocolate sauce. Break the 100g chocolate into pieces and place it into a heatproof bowl. Place the 140ml double cream, 1/4 tsp salt and 4 tablespoons of poaching syrup/honey into a microwaveable jug and microwave the mixture until it begins to boil and seethe.
Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and leave it to sit for 1 minute before stirring until smooth. The sauce will stay runny and ready top serve for 20-30 minutes before setting. Alternatively, it can be chilled for up to 2 days and gently reheated to melt it again.
To serve, place your warmed pears onto your serving plate then add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Just before serving, spoon over the warm chocolate sauce and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Enjoy!
