Regardless of the season, the usual cookouts with family and friends are never complete without dessert. Even if you might already have a decent recipe arsenal for these occasions, I offer you another quick and simple dessert, that’s not only delicious but also visually appealing.

 

 

Ingredients

• 4 Williams pears
• 700 ml port wine
• 100 g brown sugar
• 2 vanilla beans
• 2-3 thin slices of fresh ginger
• 3 egg yolks
• 300 ml whipping cream
• 30 g vanilla sugar
• 30 g corn starch

 

Recipe

First prepare the pears: Peal them and cut a small piece off the bottom so it is flat and the pears can stand upright.

Then pour the wine in a big pot, add the sugar and ginger to it. Cut one vanilla bean lengthwise and scratch out the seeds with a knife. Mix the seeds with the wine; also add the rest of the vanilla bean. Place the pears into the wine and cook for 20 minutes. From time to time flip the pears over so that they are evenly cooked.

Remove the pears and put them aside. The vanilla beans can be discarded. The wine should be cooked for another 20 minutes or until you notice that the liquid is becoming syrup-like.

To prepare the vanilla cream add the seeds of the second vanilla bean (including the bean itself) to the whipping cream. Heat the cream and vanilla close to the boiling point, but be careful: It may not boil!

In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks with vanilla sugar and corn starch until you get a homogenous mixture. Remove the vanilla bean from the whipping cream and combine the heated cream with the egg mixture while continuously stirring. Warm everything again over low heat until the vanilla cream becomes thicker and denser. Keep mixing constantly while warming up the cream.

Arrange the warm cream immediately in small bowls, make a little mould in the center and place the cooked pear. Pour some of the wine syrup over it and let it cool down in the refrigerator before serving.

 

Enjoy!
Merium