Poached pears in spiced red wine

Poached pears in spiced red wine

A completely fat-free pud that isn't boring. It's not just Good Food, it's genius

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

Vegetarian

Vegetarian

Fat free

Method

  1. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways, scrape out the black seeds and put in a large saucepan with the wine, sugar, cinnamon and thyme. Cut each piece of pod into three long thin strips, add to pan, then lower in the pears.
  2. Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.
  3. Take the pears from the pan, then boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup, a strip of vanilla, a piece of cinnamon and a small thyme sprig.

Per serving

235 kcalories, protein 0g, carbohydrate 51g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, sugar 51g, salt 0.3 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, January 2008.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • 19 February 2008

    Essgeebee commented on this recipe

    Delicious, eye catching and easy to do. Just don't reduce the liquour too much. I did and it set in the bowls like toffee!

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  • 17 April 2008

    comfortfood commented on this recipe

    You've got to try this - it's an absolute star at a dinner party. My guests thought I'd gone to so much effort to produce this - I didn't let them think otherwise! Very easy, it is really delicious and I echo Essgeebee's comments about not reducing the liquour too far - it didn't go to waste as my kids loved the gooey sauce with icecream. A definite hit.

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  • 08 October 2008

    layla rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Fabulous! Tasty and guilt free. It was really easy to keep this bubbling away whilst I tended to the main course cooking.

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  • 18 November 2008

    lesley commented on this recipe

    my daughter will cook this in a local cookery competition

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  • 29 December 2008

    ELIZABETH commented on this recipe

    I made this yesterday for a dinner party , they were amazing although i had to poach my pears for much longer than stated as they were quite hard when i bought them, the smell of the vanilla was delicious . I also agree with the comments about reducing the sauce it is very easy to over reduce and it does become alot thicker when cooled . I am going to make this again on New Years day it was so yummy ,even my husband ate it and he doesn't like pears

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  • Binder photo DJW

    05 January 2009

    DJW rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    So simple but very tasty. Having read comments about reducing i probably went the other way so had loads of sauce even though I kept tasting it whilst pears were poaching - a great hot wine drink even with the rubbish red wine I used. I am going to try freezing left over sauce if it hasn't disappeared out of the fridge. Will definately be making again.

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  • 07 February 2009

    iklektik commented on this recipe

    I have made this many many times, but by picking the ingredients from a collection of recipes. You can further elivate it by adding 2 cloves, zest of a lemmon and some orange zest. I have have tried £1.99 bottles of red and £6.00 bottles of red with little difference in final taste. As Essgeebee states, don't reduce too much or on a rolling boil or you will have toffee! However... this happened to me last week, angry, I put the spare portions in the fridge, a day later and the toffee had turned back into a nice syrup again!!! Whilst it may be 'fat free' it does have a high sugar content (which I reduced). If you like this then try Pickled Pears. Happy Cooking.

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  • 01 March 2009

    Shona commented on this recipe

    excellent, easy, impressive! dinner party dessert impressed the inlaws!

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  • 23 September 2009

    Tess McCourt commented on this recipe

    about to make this recipe for a lunch for 160 ... will post a comment once the blisters have healed!

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  • 20 June 2010

    AussieScott rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Made these lsat night, really looking forward to eating them today. Been sipping at the sauce as it is just Sooo tasty. So easy to do to! Definitely becoming a stapple in my kitchen for entertaining :)

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  • 02 July 2010

    Jacqueline rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Was cooking this with what I already had in as wanted to use up some wine which was opened already so used vanilla extract instead of pods and some ground cinnamon instead of sticks, I thought this was delicious and I will be cooking this again.

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  • 08 December 2010

    Sue Campbell commented on this recipe

    I loved the idea of this recipe but adapted it to my larder contents. I used sweet fruity rose wine, golden caster sugar and a tsp of ground cinnamon and a tsp of good vanilla extract. I served it with homemade vanilla ice cream and it was light, fruity and absolutely delicious :oD

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  • 13 January 2011

    jab1 commented on this recipe

    I made this today for my family, it was a great success, they have asked me to make it again. It was so easy to do, we all loved it. I am going to do this for a dinner party quite soon.

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  • 18 June 2011

    Amanda rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Made this for a dinner party. I now crave the dessert the sauce is such a delight and have made it number of times, . Will be making again soon.

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  • 24 August 2011

    dawn24 commented on this recipe

    Very nice, will make again. I served it with Creme fraiche. Delicious

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  • 02 October 2011

    Shortie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    An absolute winner! I cut the pears in half, the two tone colouring looked amazing, served with marscapone.

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  • Binder photo K8

    24 October 2011

    K8 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This recipe is amazing. I tried it and had lots of compliments. I used vanilla essense instead of a pod. And added cinnamon sticks and star anaise. This is easy to do and can be prepared before the occasion. LOVELY!

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  • 05 January 2012

    isapple commented on this recipe

    Should this be served hot or cold?

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  • 26 January 2012

    Anne Gillbard commented on this recipe

    I have now made this a few times its very simple to make and absolutely delicious - I agree with previous comments that the quality of the red wine doesn't make much difference but I think the Vanilla Pod is essential as opposed to using essence. I agree with previous comments that a good quality Vanilla ice cream is the best accompaniment.

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  • Binder photo Joy

    28 January 2012

    Joy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Its the first time i've made this and it was delicious, so easy to make but the only problem i had was i don't think that i poached the pears for long enough because i wasnt sure if the wine was surposed to go all the way through the pears. (I did poach the pears for about 40 minutes though).

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 6

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 30 mins

Vegetarian

Vegetarian

Fat free

Ingredients

  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 1 bottle red wine
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick , halved
  • fresh thyme sprig , plus sprigs to seve
  • 6 pears , peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact
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Per serving

235 kcalories, protein 0g, carbohydrate 51g, fat 0 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 2g, sugar 51g, salt 0.3 g

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