Spiced Wine Poached Pears
These ruby-red poached pears make a festive and decadent holiday dessert. Bosc pears are our fruit of choice when it comes to poaching as they hold their shape well and become velvety smooth when cooked. This recipe is easily increased if you are serving a crowd.
YIELD: 4 servings
Recipe Created by: Meg Raines
Ingredients
- 2 large Bosc pears
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 cups red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon, or red zinfandel
- 1 orange
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 whole anise pods
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Method
- Peel 3 (2 inch) strips of rind off of the orange, careful not to get any of the pith. Juice the orange and set the rind and juice.
- Combine wine, sugar, orange zest and orange juice, cinnamon stick, and anise pods in a medium saucepan and bring to a low simmer.
- Peel the pears, cut in half and carefully add the pears to the simmering wine mixture. Cook until the pears are tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 25-30 minutes. Turn pears often during cooking.
- Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract and leave pears in the wine mixture until cooled.
- Remove pears from pan, set aside (or chill if desired). Strain the wine mixture, return to the pan and bring it to a simmer. Cook until the wine mixture has reduced by half, and has thickened. It should appear syrupy.
- Serve the pears with ice cream or whipped cream and drizzled with wine syrup.
- Store leftover pears in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.