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Crock Pot Poached Pears

This simple recipe for Crock Pot Poached Pears is a perfect light, healthy and delicious dessert.
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5 from 1 review

This simple recipe for Crock Pot Poached Pears is the perfect way to serve a light, healthy, budget friendly and delicious dessert following a hearty family dinner like Instant Pot Vegetarian Chili.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 large (or 8 small) pears, any variety, skin peeled, bottom cut flat (so pears will stand up straight when served), and with stems on (this looks pretty but also makes them much easier to handle with tongs)
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

  1. Pour juice into the bottom of the Crock Pot.
  2. Lay pears on their sides in the juice, then add cinnamon sticks.
  3. Cover and cook on high for an hour or on low for two hours, opening the lid halfway through cooking to turn pears to their other side.
  4. Use tongs to transfer pears to plates.
  5. Pour juice through a fine mesh sieve into a saucepan. Add cinnamon sticks and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil the pear juice for about 15 minutes, or until you have reduced the volume by about 1/3 to a thin syrup consistency. (I dipped a clean toothpick in before boiling, noting how high the juice came up on the pick. As the mixture boiled down, I would insert another clean toothpick and compare the height of the boiled juice to the original pick)
  6. Remove the reduced pear syrup from the heat and stir in the walnuts.
  7. To serve, place pears on plates (1/2 of a large pear or 1 whole small pear), then ladle syrup and walnuts over them.

Notes

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…but we can talk more about that in about six months!

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.

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

Nutrition

Find it online: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/crock-pot-poached-pears/