Poached pears with saffron, cinnamon and star anise

These wonderful pears can be made a day in advance and kept, chilled, in the fridge; this will intensify the colour and flavour. If the pears are very hard it will take a little longer to poach them until they are tender all the way through. You may find they need up to an hour, because some of the hardest pears seem to take forever! Very ripe pears won’t need much time at all. I like to use Comice pears for this pudding, if possible. Serve them with crème fraîche, mascarpone cheese or thic