Poached pears, or “tipsy pears”, are a common dessert that’s simple, elegant, and can be expensive to make if you want to make them tipsy!

For some reason, I have never been fond of pears. I find them mealy, gritty, and dry. But, Poached Pears is on the list in the curriculum I'm working through, so, in the middle of winter after a 30-cm (1 foot) dump of snow, I went to the local grocery story to find the perfect Bosc (pronounced BAHSK) pears for poaching. They happened to be from Oregon or Washington (none were available from Provence, unfortunately). This is definitely not the 100-mile diet!



The Pear
Did you know that pears do not ripen successfully on the tree? Is this true or just the marketing of a big conglomerate trying to sell their pears worldwide? Supposedly, pears that ripen on the tree are gritty.

When you’re buying a pear, the mantra is: “Check the neck”. Since pears ripen from the inside out, if you check the flesh near the stem, it should be soft to the touch. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.” Sadly, I must have missed these 10 minutes in my lifetime.

If the pears are not ripe yet, store them in a warm place (not the refrigerator) such as a fruit bowl or paper bag until ripe. Store ripe pears in the coldest part of the refrigerator.

Bosc pears, which have a beautiful russet skin, are firm and work best for poaching. Anjou pears also work well for poaching, and are named after the Angers region in central France. There’s a gorgeous picture of several types of pears found at this link.


The Wine
With the pears selected, I next had to find the right wine to use for the poaching liquid. I've read that the wine you use should be good enough to drink. That’s not usually a problem for me! There are many different wines you can use, but the recipe in Le Cordon Bleu at Home suggested using a Burgundy wine.

Crème renversée au caramel is known more commonly as Crème Caramel, which is a custard and caramel dessert. Renversée means inverted or upside down and refers to the fact that this dessert is unmolded for service and the caramel from the bottom of the ramekin becomes the sauce for the custard. You can also make a Crème renversée without the caramel, but why miss out on this deep flavor that complements the custard so well?

Crème Caramel used to be THE dessert I would look for when I was out for dinner. If it wasn’t on the menu, I was disappointed. That was, until I learned how easy it is to make. From four simple ingredients, comes this elegant, delicious and heavenly dessert. Also, after doing the math I found out that it costs me 32 cents for each ramekin (I made 7) to make this dessert and the restaurants charge between $7-9! That’s motivation to learn how to make it!

Crème Caramel, according to Wikipedia, may originate in the Southern regions of France, but it’s also a popular dessert in many other countries such as Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, and the Philippines to name a few. It’s often known as a flan. However, according to Cook's Illustrated, a flan contains more eggs and yolks, and either cream, evaporated milk, or condensed milk.

The Custard
The custard part of this dessert is part of les entrements, in French, meaning desserts made of milk, eggs, and sugar that are served cold. Milk (I used whole milk, but you can mix milk with light cream) and whole eggs are thickened with heat in the oven. Thickening occurs at a temperature between 180°-190°F. The whites of the eggs help set the custard, and the yolks make it creamy. A quiche is also a custard, but once you add sugar and vanilla, the custard becomes a sweet and yummy dessert.

When you’re blending the custard, you shouldn’t whisk in too much air or else there will be a lot of foam on top of the custard mixture. Let the custard mixture sit for a bit for the foam to subside. You can also skim off the foam.

All sorts of flavorings can be added to the custard such as chai tea, cinnamon, coconut, ginger, lavender, lemon, maple syrup, mocha, orange, or strawberry, but traditionally just vanilla is added. If you add a flavoring that is acidic (such as orange juice), the custard with curdle.

Custards, if overcooked, taste “eggy”. It should taste rich and creamy, but not too heavy. Often, Crème Caramel is made in individual ramekins, but you can make a large version in a pie pan or soufflé dish.

The Caramel

The caramel part of this dessert can be tricky. Even though caramel contains two ingredients: water and sugar (and sometimes just sugar is used), too many things can go wrong. It has been called the most dangerous thing to make in the kitchen, according to food blogger at Eggbeater (and quickly becoming one of my favorite food blogs) writing at this link.

When making caramel, I have always put the sugar and water in the pan and left it alone to do its thing. I don’t cover the pan or brush down the sides or stir the sugar and water mixture, and I’ve never had problems. Once it starts to turn color, though, it requires babysitting since it can go from a nice light golden color to a burnt state faster than bad news. When you start to see some color, start swirling the pan to distribute the color. Also know the color of your pan is dark, making the caramel look darker than it is. Be bold, and hang on or test some on a white ramekin to see the color. I’ve seen too many Crème Caramel desserts that look pale!

If you carefully add water (about 4-5 tablespoons) at the end of the caramelization, the cooking will stop and the caramel won’t harden as quickly making it easier to pour into the ramekins. You must watch though, because the water will sputter and you could easily burn yourself. David Lebovitz, another great food blogger, suggests using a mesh strainer over the pan while pouring in the water.

Let the caramel cool and harden before adding the custard. Again, I learned this the hard way as I poured in the custard and saw the caramel start to mix with the custard. Oh well, another one for the “chef”.

Baking
Crème Caramel is baked in a water bath (bain marie) to prevent the outside of the custard from cooking or drying out before the interior is cooked. The water bath maintains a low, even, moist heat. The water in the water bath must not boil or the custard will be grainy. But it must not be too cool or the custard will take too long to cook. It should have small bubbles.

When you put the ramekins in a pan that will hold a water bath, make sure the pan you use doesn’t have holes! I learned this the hard way by using an aluminum foil pan that I’d used for a different dish that had a small hole in one corner. Soon I had a puddle of water gathering in the oven.

I also put a dish cloth in the bottom of the pan so that the ramekins don’t slip around. Also, if you’re baking Crème Caramel in individual ramekins, you can shorten the baking time.

After baking, it should be a little jiggly in the center, since it will continue to cook after it is out of the oven. When unmolding, you can heat the ramekins on a burner on the stove (just for a bit) to loosen the caramel to make sure it won’t stick. Use a knife to loosen the edges before unmolding too.

Watch a pro

Here are a couple of links to videos showing how to make Crème Caramel and how to caramelize sugar:
• Link to video on making Crème Caramel
• Link to video on caramelizing sugar

Recipe: Crème renversée au caramel (Reversed caramel cream)

• Link to recipe for (and interesting story about) Julia Child’s Crème Renversée au Caramel

This is still one of my favorite desserts. The only problem with knowing how to make it at home is that there's a temptation to make it too often! So much for the diet. Definitely another keeper in the favorite file.

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Running total: $191.66 + $2.26 = $193.92

Butter used so far: 4 pounds, 19.5 tablespoons