This cream stuffed poached pears makes a lovely presentation for an impressive ending to an elegant dinner. Serve with a German sweet Riesling.
Serves 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups water
1 orange, zest
1 lemon, zest
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tablespoons honey
8 ripe Barlett pears, cored and peeled
½ cup mascarpone
½ cup heavy cream
Instructions:
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, wine, water, zests, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves. Set the pears in the syrup stems up and simmer over moderately low heat. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the pears from syrup and allow to cool. In a deep bowl, beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the cream into mascarpone and add the honey. Combine until smooth.
Place the mascarpone into a pastry bag and pipe into the center of the pear and serve
Terri’s Tips:
Reserve the syrup and use to sweeten tea, serve over strawberries or ice cream
Remove the vanilla bean. Once it is dry add it to a cup of sugar. Place into a jar and seal. The sugar will take on the vanilla bean flavor and can be used for tea, making cookies, etc.
A good wine for this recipe is a dry Riesling
Drizzle a good chocolate sauce on the serving plate, add the pear and drizzle a little chocolate sauce on top
When zesting the fruit, do not zest into the white part, only zest the color (outermost skin) to avoid the bitter pith.
Cooking wiser:
Use low fat frozen whipped topping to replace the heavy cream
To save calories and money, use reduced fat cream cheese to replace the mascarpone