Chocolate Pears

This is a very low maintenance dessert that brings together two flavours that were just made to work in harmony – chocolate and pear! I have served this at two family Christmas meals so far and each time the dessert eating was a very happy occasion *approving grunts from grandpa and peary grins from little ones*.

Pears with a nice long stem look really quite fun; my Father-in-law and my niece independently described their portions as looking like ‘wizard hats’, which we love as we are always looking for toddler friendly ways to describe our recipes!

I fed my 13 month old the poached pear mashed with a little coconut yogurt and the older children and adults enjoyed the dark chocolate sauce with a dairy free ice cream; everyone was happy and loved this healthier dessert option that is perfectly sweet.

Ingredients

5 pears with long stems (I have used soft and quite hard conference pears and both worked well)

1 teaspoon of ground ginger

80g 0f 70% dark chocolate (yes enough left over from a large bar to go with a coffee tomorrow!)

4 tbsp. unsweetened almond milk

Serving suggestion:

Top with desiccated coconut and eat with your favourite ice cream  (we love dairy free Booja-Booja or Walls Swedish Glace)

 

Method

Wash and peel 5 pears leaving the stalk in tact, then cut off the base so they have a nice flat bottom to sit on.

If the pears are quite hard lay them down in a medium saucepan of boiling water so the water covers all the pears. If they are already soft and ripe use a smaller saucepan and stand the pears up filling the saucepan with enough water so the thinner section (near the stalk) protrudes out of the water.

Add a teaspoon of ground ginger to the water (if doubling the ingredients keep the quantity of ginger the same).

Reduce the heat so the pears are gently simmering away and leave on the hob for 40 minutes. If the pears were quite soft to start with check that they are not getting too soggy at 30 mins (you want them to be softly poached not really mushy and disintegrating!).

For the chocolate sauce, break up the chocolate into a Pyrex jug/heat proof bowl and place it in a pan of water on the stove, add the almond milk. Bring the pan to simmering and stir the chocolate and almond milk together until you have a rich shiny sauce.

Once the pears are poached and the chocolate sauce ready you can turn off the heat and place the pears on a plate and leave the chocolate sauce in the Pyrex jug until it is time for pudding.

When it’s pudding time, mash up a cooler pear portion for babies and for older ones pop the pears back in the water for a couple of minutes to heat up again and reheat the sauce quickly on the stove so it’s runny again.

Plate up by drizzling a dessert spoon of chocolate sauce on each pear. You can top with desiccated coconut ‘snow’ and serve with ice cream!

Any unused portions can go in the fridge and they can be eaten cold with hardened chocolate toppings the next day or heated up quickly in the microwave.