A fast, easy, and guilt free dessert that will impress.
These wine poached pears are the perfect elegant holiday treat. The blend of wine, vanilla, and pears make for the most cozy and indulgent winter dessert. It can be made ahead of time or on the spot and served with homemade whipped cream or your favorite ice cream.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can play with the ingredients and tailor the recipe to perfectly suit your taste. The white wine can be switched for red wine, the lemon can be replaced by orange, or substitute cinnamon in for the vanilla.
My mother and grandmother used to always make compote in the fall and winter with apples, pears, or quince. It was always my favorite! The smell of the fruit poaching was so cozy to me. Since getting married and moving out, one thing I often find myself doing is getting inspired by and recreating my mother’s recipes. This is how I first got inspired to make this dish. Although, I wanted it to be a little more sophisticated and elegant so I decided to swap out the water for wine and man, was it good!
My favorite way to serve this dessert is warm; topped with a scoop or two of Vanilla ice cream and drizzled with my honey wine reduction sauce.
I came up this sauce the first time I made this recipe. After I plated the pears and topped it with ice cream, I still felt like something was missing. I reached for the honey to drizzle on top and then saw the pot with all the left-over liquid. I felt bad to throw it all out so I thought I’d try mixing it with some honey and reducing it to create a sauce. And well, it turned out great! You can just drizzle plain honey on top, but how fancy do you sound telling your guest that you drizzled a honey wine reduction sauce on their dessert!?
Dessert, Gluten free
Serves 4
total time: 30 minutes
Wine & Vanilla Poached Pears
Ingredients
- 4 Pears ripe but firm, peeled, cut in half, and cored
- 1 Bottle your favorite wine (red or white) must fullyy submerge pears
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 Vanila bean
- 1/2 Lemon juice
- 1/3 Cup Honey
- Vanilla Ice Cream
Instructions
- Bring wine, sugar, scraped vanilla beans, and lemon juice to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
- While waiting for the mixture to boil, peel pears gently and remove core. (I used a mini ice cream scooper.)
- Add pears to the boiling mixture and reduce to a simmer.
- Simmer pears for 15 minutes or until cooked but still firm.
- Remove pears from liquid onto a separate platter.
- Add 1/3 cup of the hot liquid to a separate sauce pan with the honey. (You can also save the rest of the wine mixture in its original bottle and store in refrigerator for next time.)
- On medium, reduce the mixture to a thicker consistency stirring often. When large bubbles start to form (in about 10 minutes) remove from heat.
- Place 2 pear halves on a plate or in a bowl, add one or two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and drizzle the sauce on top.
If you enjoyed this recipe, please let me know in the comments below and share it on Pinterest or Instagram! If you do give it a try, don’t forget to take a picture and tag me! (@lauraciurdar)
Thank you!
-LC