I love a single-serve recipe. Whether you’re living solo or traveling on your own, having a small-batch recipe to whip up and eat in a sitting is my favorite. But sometimes, I want to feel a little fancy. This recipe does the trick. She’s your fancy, only for you, delicious situation.

This spiced poached pear was one of the first recipes we made in pastry school. It combines three elements: a poached pear, streusel, and creme anglaise. Bring them together and you have a delicious, deconstructed crisp that also makes your kitchen smell amazing (fall scents, anyone?)! 

While it doesn’t come together in one bowl or as quickly as a cookie, it’s relatively easy to make and tastes decadent. You can also poach two pears if you’d like, without adjusting the below recipe, just poach them individually. So put on your fancy pants, and get to poaching!

Yields: 1 poached pear with streusel and creme anglaise

Ingredients:

PEAR

• 1 pear

• 200g sugar (more than ⅓, less than ½)

• 200g pomegranate or cranberry juice? (1/2c)

• 200g water

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 ½ tsp ground cloves

• 2 peels of orange skin, strip

STREUSEL

• 15g flour

• 15g ground almonds

• 15g brown sugar

• 15g butter, melted

CREME ANGLAISE

• 75g whole milk

• 75g heavy cream

• ⅛ tsp vanilla extract

• 30g sugar

• 2 egg yolks

Directions:

PEAR

• Peel your pear but leave the stem intact. Use a pairing knife to remove any bits of skin near the stem. Then use the back of a butter knife to gently run along any ridges present on the pear after peeling, to smooth your pear. Use a small teaspoon (I used a ¼ tsp) to remove the core from the bottom, gently scraping out any seeds going upward from the hole you’ve made. Keep your hole as small as possible.

• If needed, minimally trim the bottom of your pear to make it flat so it can sit upright on a plate at the end.

• In a medium pot, combine the sugar, juice, water, cinnamon, cloves, and orange peels. Place on stove over medium-low heat and bring to a gentle simmer (just a few bubbles)

• Lay your peeled pear on its side in the liquid before placing a lid tilted on your pot to allow a little steam to escape. Keep the liquid on a very low simmer

• Every few minutes, remove the lid and roll your pear, making sure it’s poaching evenly. After 5-7 minutes, carefully lift the pear out of the liquid with a slotted spoon and insert a pairing knife into the hole at the bottom of your pear. If the knife goes into the pear with no resistance, it’s ready. If not, gently set back into your liquid cover with the lid and poach for another 2-3 minutes before checking again. When ready, place your cooked pear upright into a bowl

• Remove the orange peels from your liquid and bring to a boil. Boil your liquid until it has reduced by half, until it coats the back of spoon. You should be able to draw a line through the coating on the spoon and it holds without running back together. Remove from heat

• From the top, at the base of the stem, use a spoon to pour glaze along each side of your pear. Move in a circle around the pear until it is fully coated. Do 2-3 coats, to give a nice glaze on the fruit. Remove and sit on a plate until ready

STREUSEL

• Preheat your oven to 350F

• Stir together all of your streusel ingredients in a bowl, cover, and pop in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, until the butter has rehardened and the mixture is firm

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and crumble your mixture evenly onto it, push together so it lays flat but no gaps are in between. This will help you be able to break different-sized chunks off the mixture once it’s baked and cooled

• Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden

• As soon as you pull it from the oven, carefully slide your parchment paper with cooked streusel off of the pan, onto the counter to cool completely 

CREME ANGLAISE

• In a small pot, simmer your milk, heavy cream, and vanilla

• In a medium bowl, whisk together your sugar and egg yolks until pale yellow, this will take a minute or two

• Pour ⅓ of your milk mixture into your yolk mixture and whisk to combine. Pour another third into your egg mixture and whisk. Repeat with the last third

• Rinse your pot out with cool water and wipe clean

• Return your mixture to the pot and place on the stove over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally with a spatula. Cook until the mixture coats the back of your spatula and you can draw a line, that holds, through it

• Remove from heat. If not using immediately, pour into a bowl, and place parchment paper directly on the liquid to prevent skin from forming

ASSEMBLY

• Make a small circle of your streusel, on a plate, enough for your pear to sit on 

• Place your poached and glazed pear onto the streusel

• Pour your creme anglaise on the plate, around the streusel

• Enjoy!

If you loved this single-serve recipe, tag @accentgolden in your posts on social!

Notes:

• If you prefer, you can use red wine instead of juice for poaching the pear

• Keep a close eye on your pear while it poaches. You don’t want it to overcook and become mushy.

• For your glaze, be sure to cook it down enough so it’s almost syrupy, this will allow it to stick to the pear and make a delicious coating. Be careful not to overcook your mixture, making it too sticky that you won’t be able to spoon it over the pear evenly to glaze.

• I received this recipe from Chef Ashley during my patisserie course in Scotland