Today’s recipe is a dessert: Poire belle Hélène is a beautiful looking treat made up of vanilla poached pears, served with a warm chocolate sauce, whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream) and toasted almonds. Need I say more? I personally love it. I think pear and chocolate, just like orange and chocolate, is a match made in heaven. What I love most in this dish is the balance of both flavours (the bitterness in the chocolate contrasts with the sweetness of the pear and cream/ice cream) and textures (the soft cream, the silky sauce, the crunch of the almonds and the sightly firm pears all balance out). Eating a spoonful of this dessert is a blissful experience. And, it is very easy to make. In no time (and with very little effort), you will have a very impressive dessert, perfect for any occasion! Enjoy!
Poire Belle Helene
How to make a classic French dessert: Poire Belle Helene.
Ingredients
Pears
- 4 pears peeled
- 100 gms – 3.5 oz. icing/confectioner’s sugar
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 vanilla pod open and scraped
- 1 lt – 4 cups water
Sauce and Decoration
- 100 gms – 3.5 oz. dark chocolate
- 80 ml – 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 50 gms – 1/3 cup sliced almonds toasted
- Sweetened whipped cream and/or Vanilla Ice cream to serve
Instructions
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In the meantime, carefully peel the pears but leave the stalks intact. Then slice off a thin little disc at the base of each pear so that they can sit upright.
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Put the pears into the hot syrup in the saucepan and cover with a piece of baking paper, to make sure the pears are submerged. Simmer the pears in the syrup for 20 minutes, then, using a small skewer, test them to see if they are tender. If not, cook for a further 5 minutes and test again.
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When the pears are cooked, leave them to cool in the syrup.
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To serve, drain the pears and serve them with the hot chocolate sauce, some vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream and toasted sliced almonds on the top.
Janette@culinaryginger says
This would the perfect dessert for me, looks amazing.
Gramps says
Marvelous dessert.
As a very old almond person, I must comment that your ingredient list says to use “slivered almonds toasted”. The photo show SLICED almonds toasted—which I believe would be better suited to the dish.
Perhaps it is just a regional designation
Manu says
Awww thank you so much for picking that up and letting me know. It’s definitely sliced almonds and not slivered! I fixed the recipe. 🙂
Jean-François says
Oh my God, your pictures are amazing! This looks so delicious. Can’t wait to try your recipe!