🍷 Red Wine Poached Pears Recipe – Learn in Just 2 Minutes: A pretty and easy dessert is poached pears. You only need fruit, wine, and warm spices. You don’t need any special skills, pans, or ingredients. Plus, they taste even better the next day, which makes this a great dessert to make ahead of time.
You’re in for a real treat if you’ve never poached fruit before. That looks like I spent hours in the kitchen making this cooked pear recipe! It really doesn’t take much work at all! I just cook the pears in orange juice, honey, cardamom, cinnamon, and red wine.
When you’re ready to serve, drizzle the red-hued pears with the fragrant, sweet, and spiced boiling liquid. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, or custard. Simple and classy for the holidays? I understand what you mean now!
Don’t get me wrong—for a special event, I love a soft plum cake or a rich, creamy lemon ricotta cheesecake. But sometimes I just want a healthy treat that doesn’t require a lot of work in the kitchen. This is where baked pears, apples, or these wine-poached pears come in handy.
I don’t even have to turn on the oven! They are the most beautiful and healthy desserts you can make in just one pot. Also, who doesn’t need a holiday treat that is both easy to make and really stands out?
🍷 Red Wine Poached Pears Recipe – Learn in Just 2 Minutes
Ingredients
- 2 large oranges, navel or cara cara oranges preferred for sweetness
- 6 ripe but firm small pears
- 2 cups red wine such as Pinot Noir
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 tablespoons raw sugar, or granulated sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
Instructions
- Cut one orange in half and squeeze out the juice. Put the juice in a medium-sized bowl. Cut the last orange into rounds that are ¼ inch thick.
- Peel the pears with a veggie knife, but don’t cut them up. Put the pears in the bowl with the orange juice and toss them around to coat them. This will keep the pears from going brown too fast.
- Get a stainless pot or another non-reactive pot that is big enough to hold all the pears. Red wine, honey, sugar, a cinnamon stick, and cardamom should all be added.
- Bring the liquid to a rolling boil over medium-high heat. Then turn down the heat and add the pears and orange juice. Remove the bowl from the heat. Cover and let boil slowly for 20 to 30 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to turn the pears every so often until they are soft enough that a skewer stuck in the middle of the largest part of a pear doesn’t meet any resistance.
- For now, put the pears back in the bowl. For a few minutes or until it thickens, simmer the rest of the liquid.
- When the pears are ready to be served, let them sit straight in the liquid used to cook them.
- Poached pears can be served hot or cold. Add some orange zest on top and drizzle a little syrup over the top. You can also put them in the cooking juice and put them in the fridge overnight to serve later.
FAQ
How to keep cooked pears fresh
After being cooked in red wine, pears taste even better the next day. This makes them a great dessert to make ahead of time. When the pears are cool, put them in a big glass jar with a tight lid and put it in the fridge. They will stay fresh for up to 5 days.
If you pack them too tightly, they might get broken. This won’t change the taste of the pears, but it will change how they look when you serve them.
I like to serve stewed pears cold, straight from the fridge, but you can heat them up on the stove if you’d rather have a hot dessert.
What goes well with pears that have been poached?
When I have friends over for dinner or during the holidays, I like to serve red wine stewed pears. We might stay at the table for a while, so having this recipe for a treat that you can make ahead of time is very helpful.
I like to serve them after a meal of Cornish Game Hens because the spices go well with the meat. I also like to serve them after the classic Chicken Marbella because the sweet prunes in the Marbella dish go well with the spicy poached pears.