Vanilla-Poached Pears Belle Hélène with Warm Dark Chocolate Sauce

⏱ 50 min · Serves 4

Escoffier's classic, done properly: pears poached slowly in vanilla syrup until translucent and spoonable, chilled, then draped in a glossy warm dark chocolate sauce over vanilla ice cream. Toasted flaked almonds add the crunch. Quietly spectacular.

Per serving: 615 kcal · 7.5g protein · 78.0g carbs · 31.0g fat

Ingredients

• 4 firm ripe pears (Williams/Bartlett or Comice), peeled, stalks left on
• 600ml water
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste)
• 1 strip lemon zest, plus juice of ½ lemon
• 150g good dark chocolate (60–70%), chopped
• 120ml double cream
• 60ml whole milk
• 20g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp golden syrup or honey
• Pinch of flaky sea salt
• 4 generous scoops good vanilla ice cream
• 30g flaked almonds, toasted

Method

1. Put the water, sugar, split vanilla pod (seeds scraped in), lemon zest and lemon juice in a saucepan just wide enough to hold the pears. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2. Core the pears from the base with a melon baller or small knife, keeping them whole with stalks intact. Slide them into the syrup, lying on their sides.
3. Cover with a disc of baking paper pressed onto the surface and poach very gently for 18–25 minutes, turning once, until a skewer slides in with no resistance. Don't let it boil or they'll collapse.
4. Cool the pears in the syrup, then chill in the syrup for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days — they only get better).
5. For the sauce, heat the cream, milk and golden syrup in a small pan until just steaming. Take off the heat, add the chocolate and leave 1 minute, then stir from the centre outwards until glossy.
6. Whisk in the butter and a pinch of salt. Keep warm over a pan of barely simmering water, or reheat very gently.
7. Stand each drained pear in a shallow bowl, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside, and pour the warm chocolate sauce generously over the pear at the table.
8. Scatter with toasted flaked almonds and serve at once, while the sauce is still warm and the ice cream cold.