Wine poached pears with cinnamon honey ice cream

Wine Poached Pears with Cinnamon Honey Ice Cream

With fall approaching, pears are coming into season. Why not take advantage of this lovely fruit at the peak of its freshness and welcome fall with a comforting, yet elegant dessert? Homemade ice cream is a perfect accompaniment to nearly any dessert, especially something warm. Get some practice making this sweet staple, and impress a guest or two with this dynamic dessert.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup of heavy cream

1 cup of milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of honey

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 cups of chardonnay

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 whole pears, peeled

Procedure

1. To make the ice cream, heat the milk, cream, 1/4 cup of the sugar, honey, and cinnamon over medium heat in a saucepan until the mixture steams. Stir to keep a film from forming on top.
2. As this heats, crack 4 eggs and separate the yolks into a bowl. Whisk the yolks together with the other 1/4 cup of sugar.
3. Pour the hot milk and cream into the whisked yolks a little bit at a time. The goal is to raise the temperature of the yolks to that of the milk and cream without scrambling the yolks.
4. Once the yolks have been tempered and mixed with the milk and cream, return the whole mixture to the saucepan and simmer over low heat to thicken it. Stir constantly as it thickens, removing and returning it to the heat throughout the process to avoid overheating and scrambling the eggs. This resulting mixture, also known as sabayon, is sufficiently thick when it holds the ripple of a spoon that is dragged through it, about 5-8 minutes.
5. Transfer the sabayon to a metal bowl and refrigerate to chill before freezing.
6. To freeze and churn the ice cream without a machine, place in the freezer for about 6 hours. Whisk the ice cream as it freezes every hour.
7. To poach the pears, combine the wine, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium sized pot and bring to a boil until the sugar is dissolved and much of the alcohol has burned off, about 1-2 minutes.
8. Lower heat to gentle simmer and place pears in the liquid. Allow pears to poach over low heat until soft when pierced with a fork.
9. Remove pears, cut in half and transfer halves to 4 bowls. Continue simmering the poaching liquid till reduced to a syrup, about 20 minutes.
10. To serve, scoop the ice cream into bowls alongside the pear halves, and drizzle poaching syrup over the top.