French Fridays with Dorie: Spiced-poached pears

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie was the epitome of autumnal simplicity. Gorgeous local pears (the recipe on p 396 calls for apples or pears but I had pears on hand), gently poached in a syrup made of sugar and honey and spices that just scream autumn (orange and lemon zest with a touch of the juices,  star anise – though I used cloves – and cinnamon).

I also added a splash of Crème de Cassis as well, because I am fond of fruit poached in wine and thought this would be a nice addition of sweetness to contrast the tartness of the syrup.

I served this with a dollop of the new Iögo Greko Honey yogurt and some roughly chopped walnuts for some texture – poached fruit sometimes can remind me of hospital food but this with its Crème de Cassis and walnuts was far from it! The pears were alos great with a bit of granola and more yogurt for breakfast and a late afternoon snack during the week. So versatile!

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs (though this week you can find the recipe online here), rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself – join us! Honestly, the recipes that I didn’t like I can count on one hand. Really!

39 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Spiced-poached pears”

  1. How pretty and I’m so pleased that you added Cassis. I always have a bottle on hand in case I’m in the mood for a Kir, or perhaps even a Kir Royale. I’ll make a note in my Dorie book. I love this series. You’re testing the recipe and I’m making notes. How cool is that.

    Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
    Sam

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  2. Those are wonderful pics! The idea of adding cassis is such a great one, especially with wine. And leaving the stems make them so much prettier!

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  3. Beautiful pictures! I wish I made extra so that I could try it with yogurt and pork and rice pudding and all these other delicious things that people did with it.

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  4. I think you were right on about adding the liquor. I loved the peach melba and I think it was because the liquor intensified the flavor and the alcohol cut some of the sweetness. Beautiful dessert well done.

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  5. I would expect the woman who spent her Summer in France to KNOW to add a little alcohol something to this “cooked fruit” recipe to liven it up. Good idea and I will definitely do that next time, with pears or apples or whatever. Yeah, this is good anytime but I liked your add-ins and add-ons. Nice touches, Mardi.

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  6. Looking good Mardi. I ended up doing something similar with them and loved them. I’d never had them as a breakfast before but I’m quite taken with them that way. The yogurt sounds really good too…I will be on the lookout for honey yogurt.

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  7. Whipped them up this morning using my mom’s apples and some underripe bartlett pears. Learned a lot about what fruit works best but in the end it didn’t matter. I loved the poaching liquid and also love your ideas about yogurt, nuts, granola.

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  8. I’m sure this was wonderful with the creme de cassis, that is such a lovely flavor. Hubby and I
    love to make Kir Royale with it. Your dessert turned out beautiful and the addition of the
    walnuts are nice. Have a great weekend.

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  9. Golly. This recipe is making uber bummed that our pear trees have produced NO fruit this year. But we have plenty of apples. We adapt! Love the idea of using Creme de Cassis in the poaching liquid. Will give this a whirl and then come back no doubt to declare it genius!

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  10. You are right, this one screams autumn! I’m loving all the poached fruit we’ve been making. I had apples on hand, but ended up with applesauce. I just picked up pears to try again. The Doristas that used pears seem to have had more success than I did. I like your substitution of cloves for the cinnamon. I’ll try that.

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