Chardonnay poached Christmas pears

Are you still looking for a surprising dessert for your Christmas menu? Do you already have an overload of calories, chocolate and sugar? Then this Chardonnay poached Christmas pears might be the perfect solution to end your Christmas dinner.

I used unripe and still hard conference pears for making this dessert. Otherwise they will fall apart while cooking. The Chardonnay adds a fruity taste that is not falling heavy on your stomach. Finally the orange juice and the Christmas spices add to the aromas which combine Christmas with the Mediterranean sun.

Some time ago I made a delicious Biscoff pear pie. Pears are the typical fruit for this season, and eversince I have been eating a lot of pears. So it is not surprising that I started experimenting to create some surprising desserts.

Chardonnay poached Christmas pears

Are you still looking for a delicious and surprising dessert to finish your Christmas menu? Then try this Chardonnay poached Christmas pears.

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Belgian, Brittish

Servings 4 persons

Ingredients

  

• 4 pears conference
• 500 ml Chardonnay
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 orange
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 vanilla pod
• star anise
• nutmeg

for garnishing

• 100 gram mascarpone
• 100 ml whipped cream
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• orange zest

Instructions

 

• Peel the pears from the top to the bottom. Keep the stalks attached. Cut away a bit at the bottom so that they stand stable. Optionally, you can still remove the core with a potato drill.
• Mix the Chardonnay with the orange juice, honey, the vanilla pod (sliced along the length), cinnamon stick, star anise, nutmeg and the zest of half of the orange.
• Bring it to a simmer and then add the pears. Let them cook for about 15-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile beat the cream and mix it with the mascarpone, icing sugar and the other half of the orange zest. Put it in the fridge to cool down.
• When the pears are ready, put them also aside and let them cool down.
• Then bring the Chardonnay to boil again and add (icing) sugar up to taste. Let it cool down also.
• Spread the mascarpone cream on a plate, and then put a pear in the middle of it. It helps to keep the pear stable. Pour with a teaspoon some of the syrup over the pear and enjoy.

Keyword Christmas, Christmas menu, dessert, pear

Long ago I made a similar dessert, where I poached pears in Pisang Ambon, a banana liquor. they turned completely green. These “grasgroene peertjes” are unfortunately only available on my Dutch blog. It was the time before surprising.recipes. On surprising recipes you will find more inspiration for desserts with pears on blue cheese pears and Biscoff pear pie.

The basic idea for this recipe comes from Farmersgirlkitchen. This is an English blog with a slow cooker version for this dessert. There are also a lot of variants with red wine. I like these red wine poached pears a lot, or maybe even poached pears in cranberry syrup. I found both of these recipes on the Australian site taste.com.au.