Poires Belle Hélène - French classic Poached pears & chocolate dessert
Course: Fruit, Other dessert
Cuisine: French
Prep Time: 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 50 minutesminutes
Servings: 6
Absolutely decadent, melting warm chocolate sauce dripping over flavorful poached pears and yummy vanilla ice cream is my idea of what the French call gourmandise.
In a saucepan put pear peelings, water, sugar, vanilla bean split in half and scraped, star anise and the very thin citrus zests.
Bring to a boil, add whole pears and let simmer for about 20 minutes, covered (more or less time depending on the size of your pears). Stop the heat and let the syrup cool down, leaving the pears in the syrup.
Gently remove pears. When they are at room temperature and cut them in half to be able to remove the inside core.
Drain the syrup to filter the juice by pouring it through a sieve. You will use part of this syrup for the chocolate sauce.
Chocolate sauce
Just before dessert (you can prepare ingredients in advance), make the chocolate sauce. Roughly mince chocolate, place it in a saucepan with 70 g of the pear cooking syrup and the milk. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until you get a smooth sauce.
Dress in individual plates
Reform the shape of pears by assembling each two halves, in individual plates or bowls, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream in each plate. Pour the warm chocolate sauce in a pot to let your guests help themselves and pour the chocolate sauce over pears and ice cream.
Voilà, that’s all.
Notes
Main directions: Poach whole peeled pears in syrup and allow them to cool down. Make chocolate sauce pouring in a bit of syrup. Serve peaches with warm melting chocolate sauce.