Poached Pears

I used to always think poached pears looked very difficult to do until I actually tried it myself. They are simple to make and can be made as a healthy dessert as well. I made these with chocolate and kids love them too.

Ingredients:

- 4 pears

- 3 tsp mixed spice 

- 2 cinnamon sticks or 3 tsp ground cinnamon

-3 pieces of cut ginger

-Tsp of cloves

- 3 drops of vanilla essence
-2 big bars of chocolate

- the zest of a lemon

- 1/4 of a lemon 

- juice off the rest of the lemon

- 225g of sugar 

- whipped cream

Step 1. Put a pot of water on and bring to the boil. Add sugar, mixed spice, cinnamon, lemon,cloves, lemon zest, ginger and vanilla essence. Leave this simmer for awhile to allow the water to be infused.

Step 2. In the mean time, peel the pears while leaving the stalks on. ( keep the pears in water with lemon juice to stop them from going brown if you need to) 

Step 3. Add the pears to the boiling spice  infused water and leave simmer for 20 minutes. Remove when a fork can go easily through them. 

Step 4. Whip the cream and add vanilla essence and sugar for more flavour

Melt chocolate and have ready to serve with the pears. 

Step 5. Remove the pears and cut the end off to allow it to stand . 

-Remove lemon zest from water and use as a garnish .

-I also added almonds on top of the cream.   

Serve warm and enjoy :-)