Poires Belle Hélène

Few desserts come more classic than this delightful Poire Belle Helene. The dish is essentially poached pears with a chocolate sauce but certainly sounds so much more enticing with its French name, invented by the godfather of French cuisine Auguste Escoffier in 1864.

Ingredients:

• 100 g sugar

• ½ vanilla bean, split (optional)

• 1 cinnamon quilt (optional)

• 4 firm pears

• 100 g dark cooking chocolate (50-70 % cocoa solids), chopped

• ½ litre vanilla ice-cream (or whipped cream, optional)

• 80 g flaked almonds, toasted (optional)

Method:

Place 1 litre water, the sugar, vanilla bean and cinnamon in a saucepan just large enough to fit the pears standing upright. Bring to the boil over medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the pears, leaving the stalk intact. Once the syrup has been simmering for 10 minutes, add the peeled pears, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for about 15 to 20 minutes, the pears are poached when they are just cooked through, but not completely soft. Turn off the heat and leave the pears to cool in the liquid.

To make the sauce, put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain-marie method). Let the chocolate gently melts until the sauce is smooth and glossy (you can add one tbsp of the cooking water or cream if prefer but don’t stir too much). Remove from the heat.

Drain the pears and place in 4 bowls with 1-2 scoops of ice-cream. Spoon a little chocolate sauce over the top of each pear, sprinkle with toasted almonds and serve immediately.