Poached Pear And Dried Apricots With Chocolate Sauce Recipes

PERFECT POACHED FRUIT

Steps:

• Place the vin santo, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, and zests in a large, shallow saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Peel the pears, leaving the stems intact, and scoop out the seeds from the bottom with an apple corer or melon baller. Lay half the pears on their sides in the poaching liquid and simmer for 20 minutes, carefully turning the pears once with a spoon. Remove with a slotted spoon. Poach the remaining pears in the same liquid. Snip off the hard stems from the figs with scissors. Add the figs, apricots, prunes, and the first batch of poached pears and simmer 5 to 10 more minutes, until the pears and the dried fruit are all tender.
• Chill the pears, dried fruit, zests, and poaching liquid. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean before serving if you like.

PEARS IN CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Steps:

• Leave stems on peeled pears. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning. Set aside.
• In a saucepan large enough to accommodate 4 pears standing upright, combine water and sugar. Place over medium heat, and boil until sugar is dissolved. Stir in vanilla, then place the pears in. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool in liquid, then drain.
• In the top of a double boiler, combine chocolate, cream and butter. Heat, stirring, until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in coffee liqueur.
• Place pears on serving dish, pour chocolate sauce over pears, and garnish with maraschino cherries.

POACHED PEARS WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Steps:

• Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears. Cut 1/4 in. from bottom to level if necessary. Place in a large saucepan; add the water, vanilla, cinnamon stick and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 35-40 minutes or until pears are almost tender., Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and cinnamon. Gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Cool. , Drain pears; place on dessert plates. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.

FLAMBEED VANILLA-POACHED PEARS WITH APRICOT SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring 1 1/2 cups water, sugar, and vanilla extract to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Add 3 or 4 pear halves, reduce heat to medium, and simmer gently until the pears have just turned tender, about 5 minutes. Remove cooked pears to a warm chafing dish or metal serving dish, and continue to cook the remaining pears.
• Increase heat to medium-high, and boil the syrup until it has reduced to 1 cup. Stir in apricot preserves and return to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in 2 tablespoons of water and stir into the simmering syrup. Cook and stir until thickened and clear, about 30 seconds.
• To serve, pour the hot sauce over the pears, and sprinkle with the rum. Carefully ignite the rum tableside with the lights turned low. Let the alcohol burn out before serving.

SPICED POACHED PEARS IN CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Steps:

• In a pan big enough to hold the pears snugly, tip in all the ingredients except the pears. Half fill the pan with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 mins to infuse, drop in pears, cover and gently poach for about 30 mins until soft. Turn off the heat and set aside. The pears can be poached up to 2 days ahead and kept in the poaching syrup in the fridge.
• To make the chocolate sauce, tip the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream, milk and cinnamon to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted. To serve, drain the pears and, holding them by the stem, dip them in the chocolate sauce to completely cover. Serve each pear with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

POACHED PEAR AND DRIED APRICOTS WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Steps:

• In a heavy saucepan combine the sugar, the rum, and 1/2 cup water and simmer the mixture for 2 minutes. Add the pear, peeled, halved, and cored, and the apricots and poach the fruit, covered, spooning the syrup over the pear occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the pear is tender. In a small heavy saucepan combine the chocolate, 2 tablespoons water, and the vanilla and heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until it is smooth. Transfer the pear halves to a work surface, cut them diagonally, into 1/4-inch-thick slices, and fan them onto 2 plates. Sprinkle the apricots over the pear slices and spoon the chocolate sauce around the fruit.

CHOCOLATE-COVERED POACHED PEARS WITH APRICOT-PECAN STUFFING AND CHILE SABAYON

Steps:

• Poach pears
• Cut a circle of parchment paper to fit inside mouth of a heavy large pot. Combine wine, sugar, vanilla bean, canela, anise seeds, and lemon zest in pot over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Add pears and enough water to cover, 3 to 4 cups. Place parchment paper over pears to keep them submerged, and bring liquid to gentle simmer. Simmer until pears are just tender, about 12 minutes. Remove pears, discarding liquid, cool completely, and refrigerate until chilled.
• Make stuffing
• Melt butter or margarine in medium skillet over medium heat. Add pecans and cook, stirring, until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Add chopped apricots and cook, stirring, 1 minute more. Add brown sugar and cook mixture, stirring constantly, until light syrup develops, about 1 more minute. Remove from heat and cool.
• Stuff pecan mixture into hollowed pears, packing tightly. Refrigerate until chilled.
• Make chocolate sauce
• Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt butter or margarine in small saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate.
• Remove pears from refrigerator and dip into chocolate sauce, tilting and swirling pan to coat bottom half of each pear.
• Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until chocolate is set.
• Make sabayon
• In metal bowl whisk together egg yolks, wine, sugar, and chile powder until well combined. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and cook mixture, whisking constantly, until foamy and thick enough that strokes leave a clear path, about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove bowl from over water.
• To serve
• Ladle sabayon into 6 shallow bowls. Place 1 pear in each bowl. Garnish with fresh mint and berries.

APRICOT POACHED PEARS

Steps:

• Put preserves in a 1-cup measure. Cook, uncovered, at 100 percent power in a high-power oven for 1 minute. Remove from oven.
• Stir in 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and the kirsch. Pass mixture through a sieve into a shallow bowl. Set aside.
• Peel the pears and core them through the bottom. As you work, rub the pears inside and out with the remaining lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
• Roll each apricot lengthwise and put one in the cavity of each pear. Coat the pears in the apricot mixture.
• Arrange pears in a circle around the inside rim of a 2 1/4-quart souffle dish. Cover tightly with microwave plastic wrap. Cook 7 minutes. Prick plastic to release steam.
• Remove from oven and uncover. Serve hot or cold. Put each pear on a plate and spoon some of the remaining sauce over.