Snack · 35 min · french

Poire Belle-Hélène

Weeknight-friendly French cooking: Poire Belle-Hélène comes together in 35 minutes with pears, sugar, and not much else.

Ingredients

• 4 Pears
• 1 cup Sugar
• 4 scoops Vanilla ice cream
• 6 oz Dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup Heavy cream
• 1/4 cup Sliced almonds
• 1 Lemon

Steps

1. Poach the peeled pears in a vanilla-scented syrup 15 minutes until a knife slides through with no resistance; cool in the syrup.
2. Melt the chocolate with the cream into a glossy ganache; keep it warm and pourable.
3. Toast the almonds in a dry pan until golden.
4. Set a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream in each chilled bowl and stand a pear beside it.
5. Pour the hot chocolate sauce over the pear at the table — the hot-cold contrast is the whole theater of the dish.
6. Scatter the almonds over the top.
7. Created in 1864 and named for Offenbach’s operetta La Belle Hélène; some desserts earn their legends.

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