Poached Pears in Red Wine & Chocolate Glaze
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Use a mesh cooking bag for the spices to avoid anise seeds from sticking to the pears and to avoid straining the syrup at the end. Turn pears gently with a wooden spoon to avoid dents. When done, the pears will be a rich ruby red color on the outside and a lighter color on the inside.
Ingredients
For the pears
  • 4-6 Bosc pears
  • 6 cups of red wine (any wine or mixture of red leftover wines works well)
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1½ cups of agave nectar
  • ½ cup of maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon of cardamon seeds
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • ½ teaspoon of black peppercorns
  • ½ teaspoon of anise seeds
  • ½ teaspoon of cloves
For the chocolate glaze
  • 2 ounces of dark unsweetened chocolate
  • 1½ teaspoons of maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon of coconut oil
Instructions
For the poached pears
  1. Add spices except for cinnamon sticks to a mesh cooking bag and tie
  2. Add red wine, water, spice bag and cinnamon sticks to a large pot. Pot should be deep but not so deep that you cannot comfortably turn pears while cooking
  3. Bring wine and spices to a boil and lower heat
  4. Simmer wine mixture for 15 minutes
  5. While liquid simmers, peel pears leaving the stem intact
  6. Level bottom of pears with peeler or a small knife so that pears are able to stand on their own
  7. Turn heat off and stand pears in wine
  8. Turn heat back on to low and let pears cook for 20 minutes basting a couple of times~you will see the bottoms turning red
  9. Gently lay pears on their side
  10. Cook pears for 1½ hours gently rotating them with a wooden spoon and basting them every 20 minutes
  11. Remove pears from wine syrup and stand on a plate to completely cool
  12. Set aside wine syrup
  13. Transfer standing pears to wax paper
For the chocolate glaze
  1. Place chocolate and coconut oil in a heavy bottom pan or double boiler and melt over low heat whisking non-stop so that chocolate doesn't burn
  2. Whisk maple syrup into chocolate
  3. Quickly pour chocolate into a small jar or something that works to pour chocolate~ you can also pour directly from the pan but be very careful as it will be hot (work with chocolate quickly as it will cool and get harder to pour)
  4. Pour chocolate over pears ~ it doesn't need to look perfect
  5. Let chocolate on pears cool completely
  6. Drizzle pears with wine syrup and serve with a side of ice cream
chocolate glaze recipe adapted from Ricki Heller author of Sweet Freedom: Desserts You'll Love Without Wheat, Eggs, Dairy or Refined Sugar on Living Without, Mar/Feb 2013 issue pg. 43
Recipe by Kitchen to Nirvana at https://kitchentonirvana.com/2013/02/12/poached-pears-in-red-wine-chocolate-glaze/