Poires belle Hélène - poached pears with chocolate sauce

poached pear with chocolate sauce and ice cream aka poires belle Helene

5 from 4 votes

Poires belle Hélène - poached pears with chocolate sauce

This may look fancy but these poached pears with chocolate sauce and ice cream are really easy and a delicious combination.

Prep Time10

Cook Time25

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings:

Calories: 703kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For poached pears

3 pears recommend Bosc
2 ½ cups water 600ml
¾ cup sugar 150g
1 vanilla pod
1 star anise
1 strip lemon zest
1 strip orange zest

For warm chocolate sauce

3 oz dark chocolate 84g (around ½ cup chips)
¼ cup cream (can use heavy/double or light/single as you have)
2 tablespoon syrup from poaching, above

To serve

3 scoops vanilla ice cream

Instructions

For poached pears (do ahead)

Make sure the pears can fit snugly in the pot you will use - it's fine if you need to put the tops to one side, but you don't want too much space around them. Set the pears to one side.
Place the water, sugar, vanilla pod, star anise and strips of lemon and orange zest (you can use more than one of each if you like) in the pot. Place over a medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring now and then to dissolve the sugar.
Meanwhile, peel the pears, being careful to leave the stems attached. Remove the core from the base with either a corer or knife, carefully scooping out without damaging the pear itself. Then, peel over the bottom once to make the base slightly flat so that it stands easily.
Once the poaching liquid is simmering, carefully add the pears into the liquid, letting them be as well covered as you can (they will likely float a little). Simmer the pears in the liquid around 20 - 25 minutes, turning now and then to make sure all sides are submerged at some point. You can test the pear with a skewer or thin sharp knife to make sure they are tender, if you like, then remove the pot from the heat. Let the pears cool in the poaching liquid.
Once the pears have cooled sufficiently, transfer the pears to an airtight container and add the poaching liquid. Cover and store in the fridge for 3-5 days until ready to use.

For warm chocolate sauce

Place all of the ingredients (chocolate, as chips or cut up, cream and syrup) in a small microwavable bowl and heat for around 20 - 25 seconds. The liquid should be just gently warm and the chocolate should start to melt as you stir. Stir to melt the chocolate completely and mix everything together to form a smooth sauce. Alternatively, you can heat everything together in a double boiler (bain Marie), stirring constantly to melt chocolate and form a smooth sauce.

To serve

Serve a pear, standing upright on it's base, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the warm chocolate sauce poured over the pear.

Video

Notes

You may well have extra chocolate sauce - it will keep, stored covered in the fridge then just re-heat to use it. It's delicious with ice cream in general, or try it with berries, plain cakes, or to make a brownie sundae etc.

You can poach additional pears and use them for other things eg in salads or with yogurt and granola. This poaching liquid quantity would work for 3 - 4 pears - for more than that, increase the poaching liquid ingredients accordingly.

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