Poached pears are one of the easiest and sexiest desserts there are. They sit on the plate like a jewel, filled with the essence of wine.
The house becomes scented with spices and vanilla. Once these regal beauties are tender and succulent, they can be paired with pastry cream, ice cream, sorbet or even blue cheese. A sprinkle of crushed praline and you have a classic dish that takes very little effort.
I started with bosc pears, for no other reason than their gorgeous shape. The flavor is great but that is secondary (just kidding!). Choose whichever pear you find most appealing. Once you decide on a variety, pick the ones that are firm. You don’t want a fully ripened pear or it will fall apart while you are poaching.
The trick is to leave the pear in the slowly simmering liquid for as long as possible. The longer it poaches the more the pear takes on the flavor and the color of your syrup.
If you want a rich jewel tone, use red wine and pomegranate juice. The wine gives the fruit a deep flavor and the pomegranate is bright and fresh tasting, a really nice combination when you add spices.
All of this can also be done in white wine and pear juice or champagne to give the pears a honey colored finish!
Poaching Liquid Choices
I love red wine mixed with pomegranate or white wine and pear juice, but you can also use chai or another tea in your poaching liquid. The chai pairs well with the spices and is a wonderful choice if you want to avoid alcohol or like to double down on warm spices.
You can also play around with fruit juice or citrus juice, but I’d caution you to be aware of sweetness!
How To Choose Pears
This recipe calls for 6 to 8 pears. I’ve used bosc pears and bartlett pears for my recipe, but you can use most varieties. It’s important to check the pears ripeness to ensure are firm and hold up without getting mushy. Poaching can even be a great use for slightly underripe pears to make them tender and sweet.
How to Choose Poached Pears Spices
My recipe calls for vanilla bean, star anise, peppercorns and cloves, but you can tweak the flavors of your poached pears with different spices. I also use white sugar for sweetness, but you could swap in honey, agave, brown sugar or simple syrup and also consider adding:
- Orange peel or lemon peel
- Cardamom
- Allspice
- Cinnamon Sticks
- Fresh Ginger
- Nutmeg
Easy Poached Pears Recipe
I love this simple dessert because it pairs well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, cheese or a simple drizzle of caramel sauce. You can also incorporate poached pears into other desserts, like pies or my poached pear ginger cake!
Ingredients
- 1 bottle fruity white wine or use red
- 1 bottle pear juice (32 oz) or pomegranate (to be used with red wine)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ vanilla bean
- 1 star anise
- 6 whole peppercorns
- 4 whole cloves
- 6-8 whole pears, peeled and cored underripe is best
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a large pot and simmer on medium low heat, uncovered. I made the mistake of covering poached pears and they boiled away and became mushy. The trick is to go slowly. Depending on how hard your pears are this can take 45 minutes-2 hours.
- Flip the pears around gently with a spoon to make sure they are cooking evenly every 20 minutes.
- Once they are taking on color you should start to check them for tenderness. With a fork poke inside the pear, where you cored it. You don’t want to see the fork marks on the outside. Once they are tender and the fork slides ino the flesh of the pear easily they are done. You still want to have some bite to the pear so don’t make them mushy, like canned pears.
- Once the pears are finished then turn up the heat slightly and reduce the poaching liquid until it resembles thick maple syrup. Serve the syrup with the pear or over ice cream.
