Poached Pears with Warm Cream Sauce

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.

This weekend we are celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving. Today being Saturday there will be many cooks in the kitchen preparing their family favourites. Tables will be set in autumn themes, turkeys will be thawing, salads will be made, buns will be baked, homes will begin to take on a holiday cheer. 

Fall desserts are some of my favourite. Warm poached pears with cream sauce is one I like to serve during this season. It's a really nice dessert to serve after dinner, or one I like to serve when we have guests in for just coffee and dessert.

• 6 pears
• water to cover pears
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/4 lemon, juiced, plus 1 tsp lemon rind
• 1/4  cup white wine or apple juice

1. Wash pears. 
2. Fill a pot with water. 
3. Stir in brown sugar and add the cinnamon sticks and lemon juice, rind and wine or apple juice.
4. Place washed pears in water. Add more water until pears are submerged.
5. Bring to a boil. Turn down to a slow boil. Continue to cook until pears are tender, but not too soft or mushy when poked with a sharp small knife. This takes approximately 20-30 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and carefully remove pears. Discard brine. Place pears onto a cutting board and slice off a very small amount from the bottom of each pear so that they stand on individual serving plates. (See serving suggestions at bottom of recipe)
7. Serve warm with warmed cream sauce. Recipe follows. Best served right after they come out of the cinnamon sugar brine.

Cream sauce: (can be made a day before and slowly heated when ready to serve)

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup whipping cream

1. Place sugar in a small sauce pan. 
2. Drizzle with lemon juice to moisten sugar.
3. Stir in whipping cream.
4. Place over medium heat and stir until mixture gets very warm, but do not boil. 

Serving suggestion:

Warm caramel ice cream topping and drizzle it over your serving plates before placing your pears on the plates. Place pears in centre, add a scoop of ice cream and top with warm Cream Sauce.

Share this post