Crock Pot Poached Pears

Serve crockpot poached pears for a light, healthy, budget-friendly dessert that looks impressive without a lot of effort. With just 4 ingredients, you’ll come back to this just-sweet-enough dessert again and again!

Here’s how the weeknight dessert conversation goes at my house:

Halfway through dinner, one or both children will ask whether dessert is being served that evening.

Almost every night, I point to the obvious bowl of seasonal fruit in the center of the table and cheerfully say, “We have fruit for dessert!”

This is, of course, met with shoulder slumps and disappointed frowns.

My teenage kids actually love fruit and hardly leave any for my husband and me most nights. But they’re really asking for something like a piece of Apple Slab Pie with Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream or a few Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Honestly, I want them too!

But sugary desserts are a slippery slope if there ever was one, so I try to reserve them for weekends and special occasions. When I can offer something that’s still completely healthy but tastes more like a “real” dessert, everyone’s happy!

My Cheesecake Baked Apples or a bowl of fresh berries with my Homemade Whipped Cream are family favorites, and now I can add these simple and delicious poached pears to the list!

EASY CROCKPOT POACHED PEARS RECIPE

These easy poached pears with cinnamon and walnuts are the perfect healthy dessert because:

• They look and taste elegant.
• They have just enough natural sweetness without a sugar overload
• Insanely easy to make
• And very affordable too!

During the peak of the pear season, you can usually find Green or Red Anjou pears and Bosc pears for around a dollar per pound. If you find large pears, each one serves two people. With only three other frugal ingredients, the cost per serving is less than a dollar!

POACHED PEAR DESSERT INGREDIENTS

These simple and healthy poached pear dessert ingredients are so easy to find in any supermarket…

• Pears, any variety. Go for what’s on sale, but the best pears are Anjou (green or red) and Bosc pears because they hold up better to cooking than others like Bartlett pears, for example.
• Apple juice. If you didn’t know how to poach a pear, that simply means you’re cooking it in liquid over low heat, and apple juice adds great flavor.
• Cinnamon sticks. I find that cinnamon sticks are much cheaper in the bulk bin section at my local grocery store than in the spice aisle. If you can’t find an affordable price on them where you live, substitute a couple of dashes of ground cinnamon instead.
• Walnuts. ¼ cup chopped nuts gives a rich nutty flavor. The Harvard Medical School says that walnuts have many great health benefits, and they add a nice crunch to this poached pear dessert.

HOW TO POACH PEARS

Step 1. Pour apple juice into the bottom of the crockpot.

Step 2. Peel pears with a vegetable peeler, leaving the stem. Add to the slow cooker, along with the cinnamon sticks. Lay the pears on their sides.

Step 3. Cook for an hour on high or two hours on low, opening the lid halfway through cooking to turn the pears to their other side.

Step 4. Once the pears are finished cooking, remove them with tongs or a slotted spoon, and set them on plates with their stems up (you may need to slice a bit off of the bottom so it is flat in order for them to stand up). Cut larger pears in half to serve.

Step 5: Pour the poaching liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a saucepan. Add the cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium-low until you have a nice sauce consistency, and the sauce has reduced by about a third (you could skip this step if you’re short on time).

Step 6. Remove the reduced pear syrup from the heat and stir in the walnuts. Ladle the sauce over the plated pears.

Note: Serve pears as they are, OR you can pair these poached pears with a scoop of Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for an extra decadent dessert. YUM!

POACHING PEARS TIPS

This recipe for poaching pears is very simple and can be adapted for fewer or different ingredients…

For a milder flavor, the pears can be poached in water with a couple of dashes of ground cinnamon to replace the sticks, as long as you don’t mind the pretty flecks of spice on the flesh of the pears.

For a summer dessert, these would be delicious poached in pineapple juice, without the cinnamon.

For a little something extra, add some dried cranberries to the sauce with the walnuts just before serving. The cranberries will plump up just a bit in the warm sauce and add another delicious fall flavor.

Switch it up by using granola instead of walnuts. Or serve poached pears with yogurt instead of ice cream.

Whatever method you choose, try to keep the stems intact – If one falls off, use a rounded spatula to turn the pears midway through cooking, and then transfer to the plate before serving. The flesh is super soft once cooked and a metal spoon is likely to take a chunk out of the fruit…there’s a reason why only two of my pears are pictured! Luckily, they still taste great even if they accidentally fall apart.

Some poached pear recipes use red wine with lemon juice, but I think they taste so amazing without the wine and lemon. And they’re family friendly too! They can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature.

WHAT TO SERVE WITH POACHED PEARS

Before you get to your poached pear dessert, you need the main course! Here are some of our favorites that complement the poached pear flavor:

• Lemon and Herb Sheet Pan Chicken
• Greek Quinoa Salad
• Butternut Squash Pasta Bake
• Instant Pot Whole Chicken and Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Vegetable Kale Salad with Dinner Rolls

RECIPE PEARS POACHED FAQS

MORE EASY DESSERT RECIPES

• Slow Cooker Blueberry Cobbler
• Slow Cooker Peach Cobbler
• Healthy Fruit Pizza
• Easy Chocolate Covered Pretzels
• One-Bowl Healthy Pumpkin Cake

WATCH HOW TO MAKE CROCK POT POACHED PEARS