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Poached pears with Florentines

A quick, luxurious dessert that everyone will love: soft, silky pears served with crunchy biscuits wrapped in whipped cream and finished off with a trickle of melted chocolate. Be sure to chill the whole dish for a few minutes at the end, so that the chocolate topping has chance to crisp.

4 pears
1 squeeze lemon juice
1 litre/1¾ pints water
100g/4oz caster sugar
200ml/7fl oz whipping cream
100g/4oz Florentine biscuits
100g/4oz dark chocolate
4 pears
1 squeeze lemon juice
1 litre water
100g/4oz caster sugar
200ml/7fl oz whipping cream
100g/4oz florentine biscuits
100g/4oz dark chocolate

Peel the pears, cut them in half and, with a teaspoon, scoop out the cores. Poach the pears in sugar water, with a squeeze of lemon to stop the pears going brown and a vanilla pod. Slide the fruit into the syrup and leave to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the pears are tender to the point of a knife. Let the pears cool in their syrup for a good hour, then lift them out and put them in a shallow dish in the fridge. Whip the cream softly - it should not be too stiff - then add the roughly chopped Florentines.

Break the dark chocolate into small squares and melt in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Just melt it down – don’t stir it. As soon as the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat, and fill the pears with the Florentines cream. Trickle over the chocolate in thin zigzag lines, leave in the fridge for a few minutes to crisp