Name: Spiced Pears
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: Star anise; ½ lemon; 2 tbsp flour; Four spices: ground pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg; Redcurrants; 40 g honey; Cinnamon sticks; Vanilla pods; 100 ml cream; 100 g bitter chocolate; ½ bottle red wine; 2 tbsp butter; 75 g icing sugar; 4 egg whites; 5 flowers star anise; 200 g couverture chocolate; 100 ml syrup; 70 g ground almonds; 3 tbsp granulated sugar; Blackcurrants

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Le Cordon Bleu Dessert Techniques

By Le Cordon Bleu

Published 1999

About

A truly Cordon Bleu treatment of a perennial favourite – pears cooked with wine – features pears first poached in a sugar syrup then pan-roasted with sweet spices, served atop a dacquoise ring topped with ganache and accompanied by a chocolate-and-red-wine sauce.

Ingredients

For the dacquoise

70 g ground almonds
75 g icing sugar
2

Method

Peel the pears, slice them in half and remove the core, leaving the stalks in place for presentation. Rub with the lemon half to prevent discolouration. Make a sugar syrup with 250 g sugar and 500 ml water and bring to the boil. Add the pear halves, poach for 10-15 minutes, drain and set aside.