Death by chocolate? Yes, please!

Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better way to go.

This ice cream is easy to make, and gets its luxurious chocolate flavor from a generous amount of cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and chocolate liqueur. It actually really tastes just like frozen chocolate ganache.

Frozen. Chocolate. Ganache.

(For real.)

Breakstone’s sour cream adds a little extra creaminess and tang. The chocolate liqueur keeps the ice cream soft and scoopable right out of the freezer—which makes it a perfect solution for midnight chocolate emergencies.

Vote Hungry Mouse!

OK, so here’s the deal.

This is recipe is part of my entry in the Breakstone’s Battle of the Kitchen Bloggers, hosted by Sandra Lee. (Yep, the same folks who hosted last year’s Triple Churned Challenge.)

For the Showdown, Kraft invited me and 2 other bloggers to duke it out. Picture American Idol meets Iron Chef and you’ve kind of got the idea. (Our secret ingredient? Breakstone’s Triple Churned Sour Cream.)

Check out my appetizer, Sweet & Spicy Coconut Shrimp, and my entree, Roasted Garlic & Spinach Pizza.

Our last challenge? Dessert. With sour cream.

This was a no brainer. Sour cream goes remarkably well with all sorts of sweet ingredients, from chocolate to fruit. Basically, it adds tang and depth.

In honor of my forthcoming cookbook

In honor of my forthcoming cookbook, Slushed, (which is all about how to make alcohol-infused frozen desserts), I figured I’d go where my kung fu is strongest right now: Ice cream.

The participating bloggers have a chance to win a cash prize (1^st place is $350, 2^nd place is $250, and 3^rd place is $150).

Enter to win!

As part of the Holiday Showdown, you can enter win a handful of different prizes. If you enter, you’ll have a chance to win a $50 gift card (one winner each week).

You’ll also automatically be entered to win a grand prize of $2,500!

Sound enticing? I thought it might. Click here to enter to win. You can go back and vote and enter every day!

Alrighty, let’s make some ice cream!

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
6 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
½ cup Breakstone’s Sour Cream
¼ cup chocolate liqueur

Makes about 1 ½ quarts

Make the chocolate base

Heat the heavy cream and milk in a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot until the mixture just starts to steam. Keep an eye on it. Don’t let it even start to simmer.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Let it sit for five minutes, whisking occasionally, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is uniform.

Make the custard

Put the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Slowly ladle the hot chocolate mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to combine.

This is called “tempering.” Basically, you’re raising the temperature of the egg yolks slowly, so they stay liquid (and don’t turn into a scrambled mess).

When you’ve almost all of it, transfer the mixture back to your pot.

Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 170 degrees on a candy thermometer. Whatever you do, don’t let the mixture boil.

Strain the mixture into a large bowl to get rid of any tiny bits of cooked egg. (Don’t freak out if you see a few. It happens, and it won’t hurt a thing. That’s why you’re straining it.)

Whisk in the sour cream and chocolate liqueur.

Cool the mixture over an ice bath (fit your bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice, then whisk the mixture), or do what I usually do: Strain the mixture into a large pan, which will disperse the heat really quickly.

Pop the bowl into the fridge to chill it completely, anywhere from 4-6 hours.

Make the ice cream

Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Every machine is a little different. Read your instructions so you know how yours works.

For my 2-quart Cuisinart model, that goes a little something like this…

(Waiting is always the hardest part.)

(Yum, right?!?)

Transfer to a container and freeze overnight.

Serving tip

For an over-the-top treat, serve adult sundaes drizzled with warm hot fudge and a shot of Godiva liqueur.

Please vote for me!

Click here to enter to vote and enter to win.

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Hands down, my favorite dessert has always been a dish of good vanilla ice cream drizzled with honey.

Kinda boring for a food writer, right?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily consume your fancy final courses. Give me your tortes and tartes, your cheese plate composé with matched dessert wines, your convoluted, sugary sculptures surrounded by foam, gold leaf, and three kinds of garnish.

Sure.

But honestly?

The dessert that I most enjoy—and have for years—is a dish of rich, creamy vanilla draped with a spoonful or two of good honey. Sitting barefoot in the living room close to midnight. With a glass of wine, my two little wolves, and Family Guy reruns on cable.

There’s just something so delicious about the combination of creamy cold vanilla and honey, first thick and chewy when it hits the ice cream, then melding together as it melts.

Nectar and ambrosia? Absolutely, in my book.

For someone who’s currently writing a cookbook about frozen desserts, you’d think I’d be sick of ice cream already.

It hasn’t happened yet. I’m not gonna hold my breath, either. (Get ready for lots of B-roll recipes that didn’t make the final cut for the manuscript.)

This honey-infused ice cream has always been one of my favorite flavors. I actually get a little territorial about it. (I’ll stop just short of pulling a Cleopatra and filling the tub with the stuff.)

Ingredients matter

Especially when a recipe only calls for 4 or 5 of them. Use milk & cream from the farm down the road, plus local honey, and your ice cream will be that much more amazing. I even used my heirloom vanilla extract, which I’ve had going since 2002.

For this particular batch, I used what I had in the fridge, which was a combination of those things. The milk came from Richardson’s, a local dairy.

I used the honey I’m currently sweetest on (far from local, I know): Desert Mesquite. Find it at Trader Joe’s. It’s not flowery or cloyingly sweet. There’s almost a smokiness to it. Their brand is also pretty inexpensive, as big pots of honey go.

Equipment, etc.

Now, you can make ice cream without an ice cream maker and candy thermometer, but take it from me: Both will make your life a lot easier.

Get a candy thermometer. You’ll thank me later. You can find them at Target, Walmart, etc., or Amazon. They’re like $13 or so, and are well worth the investment.

The candy thermometer is going to help you know when the custard for your ice cream is cooked. (So no more of that imprecise, “cook until it coats the back of a spoon” business. Sure, your custard will do that, too. When it hits 170 degrees.)

So how’s the book manuscript coming?

Good question.

I’m wrapping up the first draft now (insanely quick, right?), and am so, so, so happy with it. I’m sorry I’ve been away, but recipe development and writing (on top of my full-time day job) have kept me hopping.

Over the last two months, I’ve made literally hundreds of quarts of frozen treats, from ice cream and gelato to sorbet and frozen cocktails. I’ve worked my way through broken custards and disastrous flavor combos. I’ve even had to sweat through a couple of power outages in the dog-days of summer, crossing my fingers that the juice would come back on before all my test batches melted.

I’m stoked to share some of the recipes that didn’t make it into the book with you. Stay tuned.

Milk & Honey Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

6 egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

Separate the eggs

Grab your eggs. Separate them, using a fancy egg separator, or your hand if you don’t mind getting a bit gooey. Save those whites for up to a day in the fridge. (Use them to make an insanely good omelet, an angel food cake, or homemade meringues.)

To separate an egg, crack an egg into your (very clean) paw. Let the white drip through your fingers into a bowl. Toss the yolk into another bowl.

Beat the yolks well. Set them aside for a minute while you deal with the cream and milk.

Scald the milk and cream

Put the heavy cream and milk in a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pot.

Set the pot on the stove over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it just starts to steam and bubble at the edges. Whatever you do, don’t let it boil.

While you’re waiting for the milk to heat up, grab a large bowl or pan. (I almost always use a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.) Pour the honey into it and set aside.

Fill a larger bowl or pan with ice and set it aside. You want the first bowl/pan to be able to fit inside the bowl/pan with the ice. This will make your ice bath.

Put your strainer with it. You’ll want both close at hand once the custard is cooked.

Temper the egg yolks

Take the warm mixture off the heat. Grab those beaten egg yolks.

Slowly (and I mean slowly, or you’ll wind up with a horrible bowl of scrambled eggs), drizzle the hot mixture into the beaten yolks, whisking constantly.

Do this until you’ve added most of the hot mixture to the yolks. This is called tempering, which basically means you’re raising the temperature of the yolks slowly, so they don’t solidify.

When you’ve added most of the hot mixture to the yolks, transfer it back to the pot.

Cook the custard to 170 degrees

Slap your trusty candy thermometer on the inside of the pot and stick it back on the stove over medium heat. Don’t let the thermometer touch the bottom of the pot, or you can get a false reading. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture reaches 170 degrees.

So you’re not scrambling, your counter should look something like this. (Custard cooking, strainer, bowl/pan with honey, ice bath off to the side.)

When the custard reaches 170 degrees, yank it off the heat. (Don’t let it go higher. It will start to separate quickly and will get a really strong, egg-y flavor.)

Pour the hot custard immediately through your strainer into the bowl/pan with the honey in it. The strainer will catch any bits of cooked egg that may have formed.

Whisk to incorporate the honey.

Whisk in the vanilla.

Set the bowl/pan with the custard in the bowl/pan filled with ice. Whisk until the mixture cools to room temp. (My apologies, my pics with the ice bath didn’t come out at all. I was shooting in the late afternoon and the light near my sink was dodgy.)

Taste it at this point. This is what your ice cream will taste like. Adjust the flavors now if need be. (Add more honey if you want it sweeter, etc. Don’t add more than 4 Tablespoons total of vanilla extract.)

Pop the mixture in the fridge to chill completely, about 4-6 hours. You can cheat and try to flash cool it in the freezer. Just keep a close eye on it so it chills, but doesn’t freeze.

When it’s cold, it will have thickened considerably.

Process the ice cream in your machine

When the mixture has chilled completely, process it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

And your ice cream maker will do the rest of the work.

When it’s done, you’ll have something that’s thick but not frozen solid. This is just about the best soft-serve you’ll ever have, so if you’re inclined, scoop a big bowl and go to town.

Transfer it to a freezer-safe container.

Freeze overnight to let it firm up completely. (And that’s it! You just made ice cream!)

Serve & enjoy!

This ice cream goes great with a big cup of tea and some shortbread cookies or fresh berries. Enjoy!

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts.)

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As I write this, my angel food cake is upside down, cooling in the kitchen.

Upside down. You heard me right.

Making angel food cake is one of the great acts of culinary faith. After separating a dozen eggs, beating them to soft peaks, and baking your cake in a quake-free kitchen, flipping it over so that it can cool upside down is absolutely the last thing you’ll want to do. Trust me.

But, it’s one of the things that will guarantee you a tall, light & fluffy cake. Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to do it.

Angel food cake is built out of egg whites, sugar, and a minuscule amount of flour. Since the egg whites provide most of the body and structure for the cake, the name of the game is to not de-poof your whites once they’re beaten.

A modern twist on classic Grandmother Cake

This recipe comes from America’s Test Kitchen. I hate to say it, but I think it actually beats my 1950′s Betty Crocker version. No joke.

Wait, I have to grind up sugar?

Yep! Hear me out.

For this recipe, America’s Test Kitchen tested a bunch of different kinds of sugar. In the end, they grind up regular white, granulated sugar to lighten it so that it doesn’t weigh the egg whites down.

Here’s my sugar before grinding, just as it came out of the package.

And here’s my sugar after grinding.

Fussy? Absolutely. Worth it? I was skeptical, but after tasting the final cake, I actually think it’s worth it to take the extra step.

That said, next time, I might try bar sugar, also known as superfine sugar. (This is the sugar that you use in cocktails, because it basically dissolves instantly.) The recipe didn’t mention it, and I’m curious. My box of bar sugar says it would be great in meringues, souffles, and mousses. I’m thinking angel food cake would work, too, and it would cut out one kind of fussy step. More on that when I try it.

Tips for making angel food cake

• Don’t grease your pan. (Really, don’t. You need the cake to stick to the pan so that it doesn’t fall out when you cool it upside down).
• Use cake flour. Trust me. It’s lighter than regular flour.
• Don’t get a speck of yolk in your egg whites. Yolks are all fat, and fat keeps egg whites from whipping up properly.
• No jumping in the kitchen when it’s in the oven. Think of this as a slightly more stable souffle.
• Cool it upside down for 3 hours to minimize sinkage and maximize poof.
• Angel food cake doesn’t like humidity. So, if it’s sticky & hot where you are, make the cake the day you’re going to serve it.

What is cake flour?

Cake flour is milled more than standard flour, which means that it’s much finer and lighter. (Sounds just like what we’re doing with the sugar, right? For angel food cake, smaller particles of just about everything are better.)

The protein content is also lower than all-purpose flour. The more protein in a flour, the more gluten your baked goods will develop. Gluten basically equals chewiness, which is great for a crusty loaf of bread, but not so great for a cake. Cake flour makes cakes with a really light, fine crumb.

Most big grocery stores in the U.S. carry cake flour in the baking aisle. If you can’t find it locally, you can definitely order it online. I usually grab Swan’s Down at my regular market, or King Arthur Flour’s unbleached cake flour when I order online.

Use a tube pan with a removable bottom

I always use a regular, 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom to bake my angel food cakes. (This is my pan.)

You can also use a special “angel food cake pan,” (like this one) which is basically a tube pan with three tabs on the rim to hold up the pan when you cool the cake.

To the ovens!

Angel Food Cake

Recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Magazine

1 cup + 2 Tbls. cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups white sugar
12 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Serves 10-12

Bring your eggs up to room temperature

Set your eggs out on the counter about a half an hour before you want to bake. You want to bring them to room temperature, because room temp egg whites beat up fluffier than cold egg whites.

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees.

Grind up the sugar

This is fussy, I know. But I do think it definitely makes a difference. If you don’t have a food processor, I’m pretty confident that a blender will work just as well.

Put the sugar in the bowl of your food processor.

Cap it and turn it on high for a few minutes. Warning: You’re going to get a little sugar cloud. Toss a damp towel over the top to keep it contained.

When the sugar is ground up, take about half of it and set it aside in a bowl. (You’re going to add the sugar to the batter in two parts.)

Add the cake flour to the sugar that’s left in the food processor.

Give that a whirl on high for a minute. This is just to combine it well and make a really uniform mixture.

Set that aside while you deal with the eggs.

Separate the eggs

Separate your eggs, whites in one bowl, yolks in another. It’s absolutely critical (words you’ll hardly ever hear from me, I know) that you don’t get any yolk in the egg whites. Even a little yolk will keep the whites from whipping up to soft peaks.

I just use my hand to separate the eggs. (Crack the egg in your hand over a bowl. Cradle the yolk so it doesn’t break. Let the white pour through your fingers into the bowl. Repeat.) If you’d rather not do it by hand, you can always use an egg separator.

Save the yolks for another purpose. They’ll keep in the fridge for about a day. A great way to use up extra egg yolks is to make ice cream.

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks

Put your egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if you’re beating by hand or with a handheld mixer). Toss in the cream of tartar. It might clump up a little. That’s just fine. Your mixer will bash those little clumps apart.

What does cream of tartar do? Basically, it’s an acid, and a little bit of acid will help your whites beat up fluffier. It will also help stabilize them.

Beat the whites on high until they get white and frothy. This will take a minute or so.

Like this:

When the whites are frothy, slowly add the reserved, ground up sugar with the mixer running. (NOT the sugar & flour.)

Beat the mixture for another 5 minutes or so, until the egg whites form soft peaks.

When they’re ready, your egg whites will look like this…

…and form a soft peak (i.e. a peak that flops over when you pull the beater out of the bowl).

Finish the batter

Add the vanilla extract and beat to incorporate.

Take the remaining flour & sugar mixture. Sift half of it into your beaten egg whites to remove any clumps. (Clumps = weight, which means droopage for your finished cake.)

Gently fold the sifted flour into the egg whites.

Repeat with the rest of the flour mixture.

Your finished batter will look about like this:

Bake the angel food cake

Transfer the batter to your tube cake pan. DON’T grease the pan beforehand. You want it to stick to the sides, so that it doesn’t fall out when you cool it upside down.

Smooth the batter down gently with a spatula so it’s about even.

Bake on the lower-middle rack at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

The cake is done when it’s golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The top of your cake will crack a little. That’s just fine.

Invert the cake & cool completely

Let the cake cool for about 5 minutes on the counter. Then get ready to flip the cake. You’ll need a smaller, sturdy stand with a flat bottom. A clay flower pot is ideal…it’s flat, heat absorbant, etc. You could also use a bowl.

Remember, you didn’t grease the pan, so the cake is sticking to the sides…which is what keeps it from falling out.

Deep breath. Ready?

Grab the cake pan with potholdered paws, and…flip it over quickly and calmly so that the center part of the pan is resting squarely in the middle of the bottom of the flower pot.

Make sure that it’s steady on the flower pot (i.e. so that when the kids/dog/your rowdy friends gallop through your kitchen, it won’t tip and fall) and…that’s it! Let the cake stay like this until it’s completely cool. Gravity will do its work and help keep your cake nice and tall.

Unmold, slice & serve

When your cake is cool, flip it back over. Run a knife around the inside edge of the pan to loosen it and remove it from the pan.

Serving ideas

What do you like with your cake? Here are some ideas (I’m partial to the lemon icing):

• Fresh berries
• Whipped cream spiked with Kahlua
• A dusting of powdered sugar
• A drizzle of quick lemon icing (mix fresh lemon juice into sifted powdered sugar until it’s thin enough to drizzle)
• Chocolate ice cream & a dollop of hot fudge

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I’ve always said that I don’t have a sweet tooth. For the large part, that’s true. I’ll take a handful of salty pretzels over chocolate almost any day.

However.

Dulce de leche might be my undoing. It’s seriously so, so, so good.

I found myself tiptoeing over to the fridge with a spoon in hand. “I’ll just, um, taste it again to make sure it’s good enough to post on The Hungry Mouse.”

Yeah, right.

So, hello, sweet tooth. You might just be a baby, but I’m afraid you’re definitely here to stay. At least, as long as I have a jar of this dark brown, caramel-y goodness in the fridge.

What is dulce de leche?

Dulce de leche is a popular Latin American sweet that translates roughly into something like milk jam or milk candy. In French, that’s confiture de lait, which sounds way more appealing (or maybe I just like saying “confiture”).

Dulce de leche is a caramel spread that’s made by reducing milk, sugar, and vanilla until the concoction is so thick you can stand up a spoon in it or slather it on bread.

How to make dulce de leche

I made my dulce de leche from Alton Brown’s recipe. You need about 3 hours and precisely 4 ingredients: whole milk, sugar, a whole vanilla bean, and a little baking soda.

I think next time, I might try David Lebovitz’s method, which has you nestle a pan of sweetened condensed milk in a water bath, then bake it in the oven for an hour and a half.

You know, strictly in the interest of science.

What can you do with dulce de leche?

Drizzle it on ice cream. Add dollops of it into brownie batter. Swirl some into coffee or hot chocolate. Top cakes or pies. Spread it on toast. Heck, eat it with a spoon, standing in front of the fridge with the door open. It’s that good.

Don’t use skim milk

I know that there are a lot of people who balk at the idea of whole milk, and will always substitute skim milk or 2%.

Don’t do that with dulce de leche.

Seriously.

The fat in the milk makes this silky, sultry, and sumptuous. Plus, I honestly don’t know if this recipe will work with low-fat milk.

Oh! As with most things with only a few ingredients, use the best ones you can find. I used whole milk from one of our local dairies, Richardson’s.

Homemade Dulce de Leche

Recipe from Alton Brown

1 quart whole milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, split & scraped
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Yields about 1 cup of dulce de leche

Scrape the vanilla bean

Grab a medium-sized, heavy bottomed pot. I used a 3-quart pot. Don’t use a lightweight pot for this (you know, like those fabulous, but thin, aluminum grandma pots), because you really risk scorching the milk mixture.

Toss the sugar in the pot.

Next, take your vanilla bean. I’m doing this on a white paper towel just so there’s a lot of contrast to help you see the vanilla seeds.

Split him carefully down the middle with the tip of a sharp knife.

You’ll see the vanilla seeds snuggled inside the pod, like sweet, fragrant caviar.

Run the backside of your knife (i.e. the side that’s not sharp) carefully along one half of the vanilla pod, scraping out all those glorious seeds.

Scrape the seeds into the pot with the sugar.

Don’t worry if you don’t get them all out. You just want to get most of them. Toss the vanilla bean husk into the pot with the sugar, too. (Want more fun with vanilla beans? Did you know you can make your own vanilla extract at home? All you need is vanilla beans & vodka.)

Give it a quick whisk to break up the bigger lumps of vanilla.

Add the milk.

Whisk to incorporate.

Set on the stove over medium heat. Whisk frequently until the sugar dissolves.

When the sugar has dissolved, toss in the baking soda.

Whisk to incorporate. When the mixture *just* starts to bubble, knock the heat down to low, so that it barely holds a simmer. Cook like this, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

(Warning: If your heat is too high, the milk can start to boil rapidly, which means that it can bubble up and possibly over onto your stove. Keep an eye on the pot until you’re sure that the heat is right.)

As it cooks, you’ll notice that it will start to slowly turn a lovely golden color. The surface of the mixture will also get a little frothy. That’s just fine.

You’ll also get some build up on the sides of the pot. Leave that there, don’t stir it back in.

Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour

After the pot’s been on the stove for about 1 hour, remove the vanilla bean. Toss it. It’s done its job (and all of its little seeds are still in your pot).

Continue to cook for another 1 1/2 – 2 hours

Once you toss the vanilla bean, continue to cook the mixture (still on low heat, still uncovered), stirring occasionally, for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

As it cooks, it will continue to deepen in color.

When it’s almost done, it will be thick and syrupy.

When is it done?

To test what your dulce de leche will be like when it’s chilled, stick a small plate in the freezer for about 15 minutes. (This will be familiar to all you jam makers out there.)

When you think your dulce de leche is done, put about a teaspoon on the cold plate. Stick it back in the freezer until the dulce de leche is cold. Then, taste it and see if you’re happy. The consistency of the dulce de leche on your plate represents about how the entire pot will be once it’s chilled.

If you like it, take the pot off the heat. If you want it thicker, simmer it for another 5 minutes, then do the cold plate test again.

Strain the dulce de leche

When the dulce de leche is done, take the pot off the heat. Pour it through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium-sized bowl.

The strainer will catch any odd, clumpy bits of milk solids.

Cool & bottle

Leave the dulce de leche on the counter to cool to room temperature.

It will thicken up considerably as it cools (which is why the cold plate test is always a good idea).

When it’s cool, bottle it and stick it in the fridge. It will keep for about a month. If, of course, it lasts that long.

Enjoy!

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If you know me, you know that I’m not a huge fan of making fussy desserts.

Creamy. Buttery. Rich. Yes. But fussy, not my speed. (Don’t get me wrong, I love fancy pastry, but life’s too short to make certain things at home…)

This dessert is actually the best of both worlds: It *seems* fussy, but it’s actually pretty darned easy to make. (Impress your friends without ripping your hair out? I’ll take it.)

For this dish, you skin pears, then poach them in a spiced sugar syrup until they’re spoon tender. Once they’re cool, serve them drizzled with a fragrant caramel.

Instant chic. Seriously. This dessert will totally knock the socks off your guests.

And? You can even poach the pears AND make the sauce up to two days ahead of time. Definitely the most considerate dessert I’ve made in a long time.

This recipe is slightly modified from this one, over at Epicurious. It originally appeared in the March 2000 issue of Gourmet.

About the pears

You can use any kind of pears you like for this dish. This time, I used anjou. The poaching liquid has plenty of acid in it (from fresh lemon & orange juice), which keeps the peeled pears from turning brown.

Anjou pears are the little green guys who are usually wearing at least a little blusher. Pick pears that are ripe, but firm…not squishy.

Poached Pears with Spiced Caramel

Adapted from Epicurious

Poached pears
1 large juice orange, quartered
1 lemon, halved
9 whole cloves
5-6 whole star anise
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1 tsp. whole fennel seed
8 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
4 firm-ripe Anjou pears
Spiced caramel
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 whole clove
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 whole cinnamon stick

Serves 4

Make the sugar poaching syrup

Put the water and sugar in a large pot. Be sure to use a pot large enough to accommodate the syrup AND the pears.

Squeeze in the lemon juice, then toss in the lemon halves. (Like I said, the acid in the citrus will keep the pears from turning brown.)

Whack your oranges into quarters.

Take your cloves, and push them into the orange rind, just like little thumb tacks.

Toss the clove-studded oranges into the pot.

Add the star anise…

…and the black peppercorns…

…and the fennel seed…

Give it all a stir to start the sugar dissolving. Set the pot aside while you deal with the pears.

Prep the pears

While your pot is coming up to a boil, peel the pears. I almost always use a sharp little paring knife. You could totally use a peeler, too.

Next, whack off the bottom of the pear to give it a nice, flat base. Set him down on the counter to be sure he’s level, and shave off a little more if you need to. You want him to stand up nice and straight.

Leave the stem on for presentation.

Once you’ve peeled and bottomed your little friend, drop him into the pot of sugar syrup.

Repeat with the rest of the pears.

Poach the pears

Set the pot on the stove over high heat. Bring it up to a boil.

Once your pot reaches a boil, knock the heat down a little so that the liquid holds a good simmer.

Simmer the pears for about 15-30 minutes, or until the pears are cooked through. Your cooking time will depend on how big and firm your pears are. (The bigger/firmer they are, the longer they’ll take.)

To check for doneness, fish one of the pears out of the pot with a large spoon. Poke him with a thin, sharp knife. You want the knife to go in easily, right to the center, just like if you were boiling a potato. If it’s still firm in the middle, drop him back in the pot and simmer him a while longer.

Be sure your pears are tender to the center. You want them soft enough that they can be scooped away at with a spoon. You don’t want folks having to cut them with a fork and knife. (Plus, if they’re too firm, they’ll skitter around the plate when you go to scoop off a piece.)

When the pears are cooked through, transfer them, along with all the cooking liquid, into a large bowl.

Set the bowl on the counter to cool to room temp, then refrigerate until chilled and ready to serve.

Make the spiced caramel

You can make the caramel up to two days ahead of time, and just reheat it before serving.

If you’re making the caramel the night you’re serving it, start about 30 minutes before you want to plate the pears.

Put the brown sugar and white sugar in a medium-sized, heavy bottomed pot.

Measure out your spices and put them all in a bowl, so you’re ready when you need to dump them into the pot. Also measure out the cream. Set both aside.

Set the pot on the stove over medium heat.

Let the sugar start to dissolve undisturbed.

When it’s mostly melted, give it a good stir with a fork.

Keep the pot on medium heat. Pour in the cream. It will bubble up dramatically, then subside.

Give the pot a quick stir with a whisk, then drop in the spices.

Whisk to incorporate. If the sugar gloms up on you, don’t fret. Keep whisking. The heat will dissolve it in a minute or two and you’ll be OK.

Simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until it’s reduced by about half. (You want to wind up with about 1 cup of sauce.)

When it’s done, pour it into a small bowl or measuring cup through a seive. Discard the solids. Let the sauce cool until it’s warm.

Plate & serve the pears

When you’re all set to serve dessert, yank the bowl of pears out of the fridge. Fish out one pear with a spoon. Pat him dry with a paper towel. Set him in the middle of a plate. (You see now why that flat bottom was so important.)

Drizzle with caramel sauce.

I drizzled enough so the pear was semi covered, and there was a little pool on the plate. (Believe me, you’ll want more of the caramel sauce. It’s SO good.)

Repeat with the rest of the pears. Serve, inhale, enjoy!

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