This is an elegant and light dessert for a special occasion. Years ago, we were served this dish at a neighbor’s dinner party and my husband and I made it quite often for a few years. We loved it. I made this updated version to serve my family on Thanksgiving Eve this year. I thought that it was a perfect dessert for the evening before a day of indulgence. An added bonus was that the pears could be poached ahead of time and stored in the poaching liquid.
This recipe was adapted from Alton Brown via Food Network.com. I poached the pears cut in half rather than whole, and, as my neighbors did when they served this dish, added freshly whipped cream and crushed amaretti cookies as toppings. Lovely.
Yield: 8 servings
- 1 (750-ml) bottle white wine, Riesling or Viognier (I used Pinot Grigio)
- 1 cup water
- 5 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
- 1 whole vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 5 firm Bartlett, Anjou or Bosc pears, peeled, halved, and cored (preferably using a melon baller)
- freshly whipped heavy cream, for serving
- crushed amaretti cookies, for serving
- Place the white wine, water, sugar and vanilla bean and pulp into a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. (I used an enameled cast iron pan with a glass lid.)
- Peel, halve, and core the pears.
- Decrease the heat to medium low and place the pears into the liquid (cut side up), cover and cook for 20 minutes.
- Turn the pears cut side down and continue to cook for an additional 15 minutes, or until the pears are tender but not falling apart. Maintain a gentle simmer.
- Remove the pears to a serving dish and place in the refrigerator.
- Remove the vanilla bean from the saucepan, increase the heat to high and reduce the syrup to approximately 1 cup of liquid, approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Do not allow the syrup to turn brown.
- Place the syrup in a heatproof container and place in the refrigerator until cool, approximately 1 hour.
- Remove the pears from the refrigerator, spoon the sauce over the pears. At this point, the pears can be stored overnight.
- Place a pear half in a bowl and drizzle with sauce, top with a dollop of freshly whipped cream, and sprinkle with crushed amaretti cookies. Serve.
thebrookcook 
Your family is so lucky!
❤
Pears make the perfect dessert, in my opinion. 🌿🍐
I agree. 🙂 I’m partial to Bartlett’s but really love all pears- and at any meal.