Poached Stuffed Pear Dessert

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

• Stuffing for 6 pears
• 6 gingernuts.
• 1 tbls butter
• 1 tbls of poaching syrup
• 6 squares of cooking chocolate

Method

Peel pears and poach in a red wine, sugar and cinnamon liquid.(its nice to leave the stalk on). Use 1/2 bottle of red wine, 1/2 cup sugar and a cinnamon quill. Also add the zest of a lemon. Simmer until beautifully soft. Allow to cool.

Remove pears and reduce liquid to a syrup. Remove core of pears with a melon baller, a sharp teaspoon, a grapefruitspoon or as I do, a knife and some care.

Cut a little off the bottom so that the pear will stand up nicely.

Whirr up gingernuts, syrup and butter in food processor. Put a square of cooking chocolate in the pear cavity first and follow with the gingernut butter mixture.

Stand up pears in a baking dish surrounded by the syrup and cook in a moderate oven for 15 mins spooning over poaching syrup every so often. Take care not to let the syrup reduce so much it burns.

The end result should be 6 lovely warm gingery filled pears with some truly syrupy, caramel sauce.

I'd keep 1/2 syrup apart from the baking mixture and reduce that to exactly the consistency I want on the stove top to avoid disappointment.