What does autumn mean to you? The crunch of fallen leaves beneath your feet? Rediscovering your favourite jacket or boots? The new crop of delicious fruits and vegetables? We’re excited to see pears coming back into season, and what better way to enjoy them than poached in a vanilla syrup and drizzled with a rich chocolate sauce. Love!
Poached pears with chocolate sauce
Makes: 4
250g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped
4 pears, peeled, cored (stalks intact)
Ice cream, to serve
Chocolate sauce
150g dark chocolate
½ tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Place the sugar, vanilla pod and seeds and 2 cups (500ml) water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Cut a small slice from the bottom of each pear to give it a flat base, then place in the syrup. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until tender when pierced with a skewer. Remove the pan from the heat, then allow the pears to cool in the syrup.
- For the chocolate sauce, place the chocolate, vanilla extract and 2 tbs hot water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water) and stir until melted and smooth. Cool slightly.
- Remove the pears from the syrup and place on serving plates. Drizzle over the chocolate sauce and serve with a scoop of ice cream.
Hardtofind is Australia’s leading online curated marketplace for gifts, fashion and homewares.
