Poached fruit not only makes an excellent desert in its own right, but it's also ideal for using in various pastries and tarts, as it softens the fruit perfectly while preserving taste and colour. You can poach any fruit using the recipe below, but it's most useful for softening up hard fruit before using it for baking.
Perfect Poached Pears
Ingredients
1 litre water
250 grms sugar.
One vanilla pod, cut and seeds scraped
Method
Peal, half and core 5 pears.
When the syrup is boiling turn to a simmer and place pears in the pan.
Cut a round piece of parchment paper an inch larger than the saucepan. Place over the pears to ensure they’re fully submerged in the syrup. Place a saucepan lid smaller than the saucepan over the paper which keeps the pears pressed down. Simmer for around 20 minutes or until the fruit is soft.
Hard fruit such as pears and apples can be pealed prior to poaching. Softer fruit can be poached in their skins and peeled after poaching.
