POACHED PEARS WITH CINNAMON SHORTBREAD, CARAMEL, CANDIED WALNUTS AND POMEGRANATE
Notes: While Bosc pears are most traditional to use for poaching, I used a local variety that is smaller. A recipe for poached pears, ‘Poires Belle Helene’, was originally developed by the famous French chef, Escoffier, in 1864. The recipe was named in dedication to the popular operetta La Belle Helene, and was originally served with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and adorned with crystallized violets. Poached pears are a versatile canvas since they are delicate in taste and can be complemented by many flavors hence my variation. The pears I used were a bit underripe, but poaching them in a fragrant liquid of lemon, cardamom, vanilla and sugar helped conceal this and these pears retained a nice firmness after poaching while also being fork tender (I only used a knife to cut for presentation). At the same time you don’t want to use extremely underripe pears as they will take a long time to poach and taste will be lacking. I suggest making this one if you want to impress some dinner guests. All components, except whipping cream, can be prepared the day before and assembled right before serving. You can also simplify things by buying caramel sauce and candied nuts, but just a little more work and the result will likely both look and taste better. I have included the recipe for the pears, cinnamon shortbread biscuits, caramel sauce and candied nuts below. If you don’t like walnuts you can sub your nut of choice and the process to candy them will be the same. You can also try different fruits besides pomegranate.
Equipment:
~5.2 quart or 5 liter pot (something close to this size will work)
Peeler
Medium sauce pan
Food thermometer
Electric hand mixer
Baking pan
Ring shaped cookie cutter or mold (the cutter or mold should be big enough to leave at least 1.5 cm of visible biscuit surface around the pear edge).
Optional: a stand mixer for the shortbread biscuits, and a small melon baller to core the pears and remove all seeds
Prep and baking time: ~2-2.5 hours (if you make everything yourself)
Ingredients:
Poached pears:
6 pears of your choice
Water: 2 L
Granulated sugar: 250 g
Juice of 2 lemons
Vanilla bean paste: 1.5 tsp (or alternatively two vanilla beans cut and scraped)
Cardomom pods: ~16 pods
Cinnamon shortbread biscuits:
Unsalted butter (softened): 140 g
Caster sugar: 60 g (if you don’t have caster sugar you can use granulated; caster will just dissolve more easily)
Cinnamon: 1 tsp
AP flour: 210 g
Salt: 1/4 tsp (I used pink Himalayan salt)
Caramel sauce:
Granulated sugar: 100 g
Heated cream: 150 mL
Unsalted butter: 80 g
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Caramelized nuts:
Granulated or caster sugar: ~3 tablespoons
Water: ~ 3 tablespoons:
Raw nuts of choice: 65 g (~2/3 cup)
Whipped cream accent:
Heavy cream (cold): 200 mL
Caster or confectioner’s sugar or maple syrup: 1 tsp
Vanilla bean paste: 3/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
A poached red pear with crisp cinnamon shortbread biscuit, homemade caramel sauce, candied walnuts, pomegranate and whipped cream. A light and delightful dessert with all the fall vibes.
Directions:
Pears:
Peel the pears completely leaving the stems. You may find it best to use a paring knife to remove the skin around the stem while leaving the stems intact. A few small bruises are ok, but pears should be mostly smooth and blemish free.
Core the pears from the bottom and remove all seeds. You can use a knife, but it will probably be easier to do this with a small melon baller.
Prepare the poaching liquid by combining water, lemon, vanilla, and cardamom in a pot. Add the 6 prepared pears, cover with a plate to keep the pears submerged, and poach on medium-low heat for ~30 mins or until the pears are easily pierced with a knife (pierce near the bottom so not visible).
Allow the pears to cool to at least room temperature. You can also chill them.
Cinnamon shortbread biscuits:
If preparing using a stand mixer then use the paddle attachment to beat the softened butter, sugar and cinnamon together for 2-3 mins until smooth, but not aerated.
Sift in the flour and salt and mix until the dough goes from crumbly to pulling together and smooth.
Transfer the soft dough to a pan with parchment paper, cover with another parchment paper, flatten a bit with hands and freeze for about ~5 mins until the dough has firmed up a bit.
When taken out of the freezer sprinkle with a dusting of flour, cover again with parchment and quickly roll out before it gets to warm. You may find that the dough cracks a bit at first, but it will come back together quickly as it warms up. When about 0.5cm thick you can cut out dough circles. If the rolled dough has become too soft, you can quickly freeze again for a few mins before removing the dough circles so they don’t get deformed.
Place shortbread dough circles on a silicone mat on a baking pan and pierce each one in the center 3 times with a fork. Alternatively you can use a good nonstick baking pan if you don’t have a silicone mat or a regular baking pan with parchment paper. Bake at 170 C (335 F) for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly golden.
If needed, flatten out any bubbles with the bottom of a measuring cup immediately after taking the biscuits out of the oven.
Caramel sauce:
Start with only sugar in the pot on medium heat and mix constantly and wait for a dark caramel color to form, then take the pan off the heat. Immediately move to the next step.
Heat your cream in a microwave until hot to the touch but not scalding and mix into your still hot caramel sugar base. It will bubble up as you mix in the cream. Set the mixture aside to cool to ~60 C.
Add in the butter in pieces and mix to emulsify in (you can do this step on low heat if the temp has dropped below 60 C.)
Candied nuts:
In a saucepan on medium heat add the sugar and water and mix until a very light caramel has formed (1-2 mins), then add your nuts of choice.
Keep mixing them until the nuts are fully coated, have started to take on some toasted color, and the sugar has started to crystalize around the nuts.
Remove from heat and set aside for plating.
Whipped cream (lightly sweetened):
Beat the cold whipped cream, sugar (or maple syrup), vanilla bean paste and salt moving all the way up to high speed until stiff peaks have formed (~2-3 mins).
Set aside in the fridge until ready to plate.
Plating:
On a small plate place the shortbread biscuit down in the middle.
*Optional step: You can cut a little bit off the tip of each pear stem at an angle (before plating) to make them look slightly more polished.
Center a pear on top of the biscuit. *If the pear looks lopsided you can cut a slice off the base to level it and compensate.
Transfer the room temp caramel sauce to a squeezy bottle with a narrow opening in the tip.
From here you can follow what I did with a circle outline of caramel around the biscuit to keep the pomegranate seeds (or fruit) you place around the biscuit in place, then pipe some whipped cream dollops in a symmetric circle around the pomegranate seeds and top off with candied nuts. Complete by drizzling caramel sauce right over the top of the pear stem until you get drips coming down all sides.
There’s countless ways to plate and so feel free to get creative.
Another (simpler) plating variation.