Poached Pears with Spiced Caramel Sauce

4.3(37)

Poaching time for pears will vary, depending on their firmness.

by Epicurious·published 2004-08-20

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Servings

Makes 6 servings

Total time

4 min

Calories / serving

—

Ingredients (14)

serves

4 juice orangesorange
1 lemon, halvedlemon
8 cups waterwater
2 cups granulated sugarsugar
6 firm-ripe Anjou pearspear
1/2 cup granulated sugarsugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugarbrown-sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy creamheavy-cream
1 whole cloveclove
5 cardamom pods
1/4 teaspoon fennel seedsfennel-seed
1/4 teaspoon black peppercornspeppercorn
2 (3-inch) cinnamon stickscinnamon
3 tablespoons chopped toasted almonds or hazelnutshazelnut

Instructions (4 steps)

01Remove zest of oranges in strips with a vegetable peeler and cut away any white pith from strips. Squeeze juice from oranges and lemon into a 6-quart pot and add lemon halves, water, granulated sugar, and zest. Peel pears, leaving stems attached, and add to pot.
02Simmer pears 15 to 25 minutes, or until just tender, and cool in liquid. (Poached pears will continue to cook a bit as they cool.)
03

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Data quality

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Put granulated sugar in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and crumble brown sugar over. Melt sugars, undisturbed, over moderate heat until granulated sugar is mostly melted. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork, until a deep golden caramel. Carefully pour in cream (mixture will bubble up and caramel will harden slightly) and stir in clove, cardamom pods, fennel, peppercorns, and cinnamon sticks. Simmer, stirring, until caramel is dissolved and sauce is reduced to about 1‚ cups, about 10 minutes. Pour sauce through a sieve into a 2-cup measure and cool to just warm.