Red Wine-Poached Pears in a Boozy Chocolate Sauce #NationalPearDay

For National Pear Day, hosted by Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm, I decided to poach some adorable Seckel pears in red wine and serve them in a pool of chocolate-wine sauce. Oh, delicious, chocolatey decadence was achieved! But, before I get to that, please take a look at the pear-y delicious goodness my fellow bloggers have shared.

• Individual Pear Galette by Caroline's Cooking  
• Pear Pecan Cardamom Crumble by Cookaholic Wife 
• Pork and Pears with Hard Cider Sauce by A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Red Wine-Poached Pears in a Boozy Chocolate Sauce by Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Roasted Pear Quiche by Palatable Pastime 
•  Upside Down Pear Gingerbread by The Gingered Whisk

Red Wine-Poached Pears 
in a Boozy Chocolate Sauce

There seem to be two distinct camps: one who thinks red wine and chocolate are a darling pair; one who thinks that those should never be served together. I fall firmly in the first camp, with the proviso that I mean good, dark chocolate with a high percentage of cacao solids and good red wine. You need the flavor intensities to be equally matched or one is going to overpower the other.

Ingredients serves 8

For the Pears
(you should poach the pears the day before you want to serve them)

• 8 Seckel pears
• 2 C red wine (I used some already opened Merlot)
• 3/4 C organic granulated sugar

For the Sauce
(you should make this right before you want to serve because there's not much better than warm chocolate sauce)

• 1 C organic heavy whipping cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (minimum of 64% cacao though I prefer 75%), chopped or use chips
• 1 T butter
• 1 to 2 T red wine (I used some already opened Merlot)

Procedure

For the Pears
Peel the pears, but leave the stem intact. That makes it easier to pick them up without damaging the flesh and it also looks cool!

Pour the red wine into a saucepan and add the sugar. Heat and swirl the pan until the sugar is dissolved.

Place the pears in the red wine and simmer gently  at a very low heat for 25 to 30 minutes. You want the pears softened, but still retaining their shape. Once softened, remove from the heat, and leave the pears in the poaching liquid. You will need to turn the pears if they are not completely submerged in the liquid. I probably turned mine 4 times while they cooled. Then I refrigerated them - in the liquid - overnight.

Before serving, remove them from the liquid and bring them to room temperature. They should look like the pear above!

For the Sauce

Combine the cream, wine, and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until the cream begins to steam and small bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Pour in the chocolate and swirl until it's completely submerged. Let stand for 3 minutes. Whisk until a smooth sauce forms. This sauce is best served warm.

To Serve
Pour a small pool of chocolate into the bottom of a shallow bowl. Place your poached pear in the center. Serve immediately!