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Honey Poached Pears with Amaretto Whipped Cream and Candied Almonds

October 29, 2014 by jessfuel 14 Comments

Honey Poached Pears with Amaretto Whipped Cream and Candied Almonds #CleverlyPoached

A good, ripe pear is definitely one of my favorite fruits. Juicy, creamy, and such great flavor. It seems to me that when fall rolls around, everyone becomes obsessed with apples and pumpkin. But in my opinion, pears should be the star of the season!! Pears are perfect as a snack, in breakfasts, desserts, or even savory dishes like salads. Fresh pear season is underway and all 10 varieties of USA Pears are being harvested now!

Determining if a pear is ripe is easy: apply gentle pressure to the narrow “neck” of the pear with your thumb. If it yields to pressure, it’s ripe! While most people prefer pears perfectly ripe, there are an abundance of uses for crisp and under-ripe pears. They are especially ideal for poaching.

Even though I love pears, I had never made poached pears before. Poached pears seem like such a fancy, elegant dessert… they must surely be difficult to make! But when I was given the opportunity to come up with a unique poached pear recipe, I decided to rise to the challenge. And guess what? It turns out that poaching pears is pretty simple and foolproof!

Poaching a pear is simple, but looks and tastes so special. The grandfather of poached pear liquids is the traditional wine and sugar mixture, but today’s poached pear recipes run the spectrum of flavors and uses. You can infuse creativity in your poached pear by experimenting with tea, bourbon, coconut milk, beer, coffee, or a myriad of other poaching liquids. The possibilities are endless!

Ever since Nick got his bees, I’ve been using honey in place of sugar 95% of the time. So honey was a no-brainer for the poaching liquid! I paired it with a dry white wine for some contrast and vanilla bean for some intense flavor. When I went shopping for pears, I saw that the Bosc pears were advertised as “crisp, spicy and honey sweet.”

USA Pears Bosc Pears

Since I was going for the honey flavor, they sounded perfect!

Bosc Pears

Poaching the pears was seriously SO simple. If you can boil water, you can poach pears! Once you choose your poaching liquid, you bring it to a boil. Add your pears, reduce the heat and simmer the pears until tender… which only takes 15 or 20 minutes.

Honey Poached Pears

Once the pears are tender, you can go a step further to make a delicious sauce. Remove the pears from the liquid and continue boiling it down until it’s thick and syrupy. Then pour it over the pears and let the flavors soak into the fruit while they cool in the fridge.

Honey Poached Pears

For me, pear and almond flavors are a match made in heaven. Must be all the French pear and frangipane tarts I have eaten in my lifetime! Amaretto whipped cream was the perfect complement to the sweet pears. It had a subtle but perfect almond flavor. Crunchy candied cinnamon almonds on top gave the dessert a little texture and brought out the spiciness of the Boscs.

I served these pears to friends and they were so impressed. They told me it was like something they would order in a restaurant… mission accomplished! Little did they know how easy it was.

Poaching pears is my new favorite thing and I can’t wait to try it again. I think poached pears would be awesome on a salad with blue cheese and crunchy nuts, or on top of my breakfast oatmeal. They are so versatile!

Honey Poached Pears with Amaretto Whipped Cream and Candied Almonds #CleverlyPoached

Honey Poached Pears with Amaretto Whipped Cream and Candied Almonds
 
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Author: Flying on Jess Fuel
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 3 Bosc pears
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • ⅔ cup honey
  • 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
  • .
  • 1 pint heavy whipping cream
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp amaretto liquor
  • .
  • 2 tbsp water
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ cup almonds
Instructions
  1. Peel the pears, halve them, and take the core out (you can use a melon baller or spoon). Squeeze the lemon juice over the pears and toss.
  2. Combine the water, wine, honey and vanilla (if using a bean, scrape out the seeds and add both the seeds and pod to the liquid) in a medium pot over medium heat. Once everything is mixed together, add the pears.
  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, until pears are fork tender.
  4. Transfer the pears to a container, then continue cooking the poaching liquid until syrupy, about 5 more minutes. Let cool slightly, then pour over pears. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.
  5. Meanwhile, with a stand or hand mixer, beat the whipping cream, sugar and amaretto on high until stiff peaks form. Transfer whipped cream to a container and refrigerate until needed.
  6. To make the candied almonds: Bring the water, sugar and cinnamon to a boil in a small pot. Stir in the almonds, then continue cooking and stirring until all of the liquid has evaporated. Pour the almonds out onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Cool completely, then chop.
  7. To assemble, top pears with whipped cream and chopped candied almonds. (You can leave pear halves whole, or slice them into pretty fans!)
3.2.2802

Do you have a favorite pear variety? Have you ever tried poaching pears? Does it intimidate you? It shouldn’t!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: dessert, fruit, pears, sponsored

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Comments

  1. Ashley | The Recipe Rebel says

    October 30, 2014 at 5:13 am

    LOVE this idea! Perfectly sweet and still relatively healthy. The perfect dessert for after a big Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!

    Reply
  2. Emily aka The Three Bite Rule says

    October 30, 2014 at 5:26 am

    this sounds so good! you would have blown us out of the water at Marta’s pear-picking and pear-cookoff!

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      October 30, 2014 at 1:10 pm

      Awww!! Wish I could have been there!!

      Reply
  3. Annie @Maebells says

    October 30, 2014 at 7:53 am

    Oh I just love this! Fresh and easy! That is my kind of recipe!

    Reply
  4. Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says

    October 30, 2014 at 9:35 am

    These poached pears look perfect, Jess! I actually never knew how to poach a pear, so I’m loving this! And I love the amaretto whipped cream. What a great touch!

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      October 30, 2014 at 1:10 pm

      I really was surprised how easy it was!! And definitely a huge reward for not too much effort!

      Reply
  5. Catalina @ Shades of Pink says

    October 30, 2014 at 11:52 am

    I love bosc pears, we always get them, I like they slightly crumbly texture. This would make such a nice treat/snack without the guilt!

    Reply
  6. Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says

    October 30, 2014 at 12:36 pm

    You did a great job with these! They’re gorgeous!!

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      October 30, 2014 at 1:10 pm

      Thanks, Ashley!! ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  7. [email protected] says

    October 31, 2014 at 5:49 am

    These pears look SO elegant and fancy! Totally swooning over that amaretto cream!

    Reply
  8. Katie says

    October 31, 2014 at 12:55 pm

    these pears look great! Lucky friends of yours! Nice to give the pumpkin stuff a break too. I never knew that pears were in season this time of year, and I never knew you could poach a pear!!

    Reply
  9. marcie says

    October 31, 2014 at 1:22 pm

    I love poached pears — so simple but elegant! And that amaretto whipped cream sounds amazing! Pinning. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  10. Kelly @ Trial and Eater says

    October 31, 2014 at 3:49 pm

    Like Gayle, I’ve never poached a pear – but anything with honey, amaretto and candied almonds sounds like a win to me! (I almost typed wine instead of win – so I guess that means I need extra wine to go with it!)

    Reply
  11. Natalie @ Tastes Lovely says

    November 5, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    Such beautiful, perfect looking pears. And I love your amaretto whipped cream!

    Reply

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ABOUT JESS

Jess is home cook, foodie and proud Navy wife. She grew up in Boston and now lives on the West Coast. She loves to blog, travel, read and write. When she's not working or blogging, she can be found running or relaxing with a glass of wine. Read Moreโ€ฆ

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