Poires Belle Helene is made with the classic Bosc Pears, which are sold in Europe & grown in France and Belgium. It’s hard in texture and brown in color and is perfect for cooking and baking. this belle Helene dessert is a classic French dessert made very often. Here is the recipe of Poires Belle Helene, along with some little trivia!
If you do not have Bosc pears you can use alternatively Winter Nellis Pears which is just perfect for baking. It is extensively used in French cooking for its unique flavors. Poaching of pears, especially the gorgeously brown and firm Bosc pears, is very common in French culinary traditions. The Poires Belle Helene Recipe’s major part is about poaching it in sugar and caramel sauce.
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I think it’s the exquisite art that French culinary is which makes this French dessert a perfect dessert for every occasion bringing in the French worldview of equilibrium in its every bite. I mean think about it!
The French People are known for their balanced lifestyles with French desserts which aren’t saccharine sweet but uses the wonderful sweetness of fruits for a delightful dessert. Belle Helene dessert was invented by the French chef and culinary author Augustus Escoffier who is said to be the king of all French chefs and haute cuisines because of his astonishing contributions to the French culinary styles.
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Before you start reading the Poires Belle Helene Recipe, don’t you want to know why it has this unusal name???
Belle Helene Dessert is named after the famous operetta Offenbach called La belle Hélène. This Operetta parodied the gorgeous Helen for whom the Trojan War was fought. Come to think of it and you’ll see that the dessert resembles her beauty and exquisiteness. So today I’ll share with y’all the Recipe of Poires Belle Helene.
Poires Belle Helene Recipe
Ingredients needed to make Poires Belle Helene:
- 2 intact cinnamon stick
- ¾ cup of white crystal sugar
- 2 ½ cup of water
- 4 Bosc pears
- 8scoops of vanilla ice cream
- ½ cup of chocolate sauce for garnish
Method:
STEP 1. Core your Pear:
- First of all, you have to core out your Pear for the Belle Helene dessert. For this, place the pear on its side and slice out the bottom so that it stands erect on a plate.
- Now use a vegetable knife or a spoon and scoop out the inner flesh of the pear carefully.
- You do not have to scoop much of it or we might break the pear. Just enough so that it soaks in all the wonderful flavors of the cinnamon sauce in it.
STEP 2. Cinnamon and Sugar sauce:
- Use a saucepan and boil the whole cinnamon sticks with a ½ cup of water and sugar to form a syrupy consistency. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn down and is gorgeously reduced to a thick sauce.
- Now slowly add the remaining two cups of water and stir constantly. You have to do it all in very low flame for say about 15 minutes or until you get a single-stranded consistency of the syrup.
- Now place your scooped fruit into the sauce and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes so as the Pear soaks in all the flavors of cinnamon and get caramelized evenly.
- But you have to be REALLY careful while doing this. Your fruit might break down due to over poaching.
- So it’s all a trick of instincts here. You have to keep checking the fruit until it’s done well.
STEP 3. The eventual garnish:
- Now you have to just carefully plate the Pear with the syrup and allow it to cool down.
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Add few scoops of vanilla ice cream on its side and drizzle chocolate sauce on the pear for the final garnish. And you are done!
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