Poached pears with hot chocolate sauce

Name: Poached pears with hot chocolate sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 6 firm dessert pears, such as Waitrose Doyenne du Comice Pears or Waitrose Blush Pears; 350 g caster sugar; 1 vanilla pod, halved; 3 cardamom pods; 1 cinnamon stick; 170 ml essential Waitrose Double Cream; 200 g Waitrose Belgian Dark Chocolate, chopped into small pieces; 500 ml Waitrose Seriously Creamy Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream, to serve

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Vegetarian

Serves6
CourseDessert
Prepare10 mins
Cook20 mins
Total time30 mins

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Ingredients

6 firm dessert pears, such as Waitrose Doyenne du Comice Pears or Waitrose Blush Pears
350g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, halved
3 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
170ml essential Waitrose Double Cream
200g Waitrose Belgian Dark Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
500ml Waitrose Seriously Creamy Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream, to serve

Method

Peel the pears, leaving the stalk in place, and cut out the core. Slice off the bottom of each pear to make a flat base.
Put the sugar into a large pan with the vanilla pod, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick. Pour over 750ml water, then simmer until the sugar dissolves and turns syrupy. Place the pears into the syrup and poach gently for 20 minutes, or until the pears are tender. Carefully remove the pears from the poaching liquid, reserving 2 tbsp of the sugar syrup.
To make the chocolate sauce, heat together the double cream and chocolate in a small pan over a low heat, stirring until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the reserved sugar syrup until the sauce is glossy.
Drizzle the sauce over the pears and serve with the ice cream.