Red Wine Poached Pears Recipe (Step by Step + Video)

Name: Red Wine Poached Pears Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 4 Pears; 2 cups Red wine; 1 stick Cinnamon; 1/2 cup Sugar; 4 tsp Lemon juice; 1 Bay leaf; 1 piece Orange Peel

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These easy red wine poached pears are probably one of the easiest and the most elegant dessert anyone can make. Serve it for your weekend brunch or as a dessert for house parties, this one will surely mark its place!

Here are some more delicious desserts that can be made for your brunch parties – Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, Basbousa, Apple Cinnamon Cake, Strawberry Cobbler, Hot Spiced Fruit Bake, and Classic New York Style Cheesecake.

Red Wine Poached pears served with vanilla ice cream.

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About This Recipe
Ingredients
Step By Step Recipe
Frequently Asked Questions
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About This Recipe

Looking for a Winter dessert, then this Pears Poached in Red Wine is what you want in the cold nights with a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream!

Red Wine Poached Pears is a classic, easy and simple French dessert where pears are poached in a mixture of red wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, bay leaf, and lemon juice. Once the pears are properly poached, the mixture is reduced to a syrup consistency and poured over the pears.

The syrup enhances the natural sweetness of the fruit with a beautiful red wine syrup flavoured with spices.

These delicious Poached Pears are then served with chilled Vanilla Ice Cream. This hot and cold combination of pears and ice cream will surely satisfy your taste buds.

They are perfect for winters, and when soaked in red wine, the deeply flavored sauce and fragrant cinnamon give the fruit a beautiful taste. With minimum ingredients, you are sure to impress your visitors big time. So give this Poached Pears Dessert recipe a try!

You can also make a Poached Pear Salad by adding greens, onions, feta cheese, or blue cheese. I also like to dip my Poached Pears in Chocolate Sauce or Raspberry/Cranberry Sauce or pour some Caramel sauce on top and serve with a scoop of vanilla Ice cream for my fancy desserts. Yummy!

Ingredients

Pears – The key ingredient of this dessert is Pears. Make sure you select the right pears for the same, otherwise you won’t get the perfectly poached pears.

You should always go for perfectly ripe pears to make Poached Pears because if you select the overripe ones, they will turn too soggy while poaching and if they’re underripe, they won’t poach well.

You can use any variety of Pears, But Bosc Pears works the best for this recipe. Just avoid Bartlett Pears, other varieties are good to use.

For the Sauce – Pears are cooked in a sauce which is made with the combination of red wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, bay leaf, and lemon juice. This sauce really makes the pears burst of lip-smacking flavors. You can also use mulled wine, brandy, white wine, rose, or port wine instead of red wine to make the sauce.

Step By Step Recipe

Peel the pears carefully, leaving the stalk intact. Cut a straight slice off the bottom, so that they can stand upright.

In a deep bottom pan, add red wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, lemon juice, orange peel, and bay leaf and bring the mixture to a boil.

Red wine, sugar, cinnamon, orange peel and lemon juice added in a pan.

Add pears to the pan on their sides.

Simmer the heat and cook the pears for 30-40 minutes turning them at regular intervals. Take the pan off the heat and let the pears cool. Remove the pears from the pan using a slotted spoon.

Keep the pan back on the heat and cook till the wine is reduced to a syrupy consistency.

When serving, keep the pears on a plate. Drizzle with the wine sauce. Serve with a scoop of ice cream.

Poached pears served in a plate with syrup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to make this recipe in Instant Pot?

To make Poached Pears in Instant Pot, combine red wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, bay leaf, and lemon juice and add in the Instant Pot. Select saute function and set the timer for 3 minutes until you see that the liquid is slightly simmering and sugar is dissolved fully.
Next, add in the pears inside the pot in the liquid mixture. Close the lid and select high pressure and set the timer for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, let the pressure release naturally. Open the Instant Pot and discard cinnamon sticks from the sauce. Place poached pears in bowls and drizzle it with the red wine sauce.

How to make these without wine?

If you want a non-alcoholic version of the same, don’t worry, you can poach your pears without wine too.
Instead of wine mixture, you can make the base sauce with granulated sugar, lemon juice, water, and pure vanilla extract. If you want more flavors to be added, you can add ginger, cloves, star anise, allspice berries, etc.
You can even make a sauce with orange juice, water, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, and cloves.

Do you eat these hot or cold?

You can eat it in both ways, at room temperature or when they are hot. I like to serve it at room temperature, as they go perfectly with Ice Cream and Whipped Cream.

How to reheat Poached Pears?

If you want to reheat the Poached Pears, add them in a pan along with the syrup and heat until they are just warm. Take it out on a plate and serve.
You can also heat them in a microwave. Just place the peach in a microwave-safe dish with the sauce and microwave it on high for 3 to 5 minutes. Open and see, if the pears are tender after 3 minutes, if not microwave for more.

Can you freeze these?

Yes, you can freeze them. Once both, Poached Pears and Syrup cools down completely, add them in freezer-safe ziplock bags and freeze them for about 3 months.

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