"national pears helene day" news and stories

Maple, salted butter caramel and pear belle helene. Photo: Jumanggy, Flickr.

Happy National Pears Helene Day!

Also hailed as poire Helene or belle Helene, this dessert was created around 1870 by famed chef Auguste Escoffier. The fancy sundae consists of a chilled pear, poached in vanilla-flavored sugar syrup, paired with vanilla ice cream and glazed with a warm chocolate sauce.

In a sophisticated take on this elegant dessert (pictured at left), blogger No Special Effects jazzed up the original components, using honeyed poached pears, David Leibovitz's recipe for maple-walnut ice cream, and eschewing the tired old chocolate sauce for a lighter salted butter caramel sauce. Here's the recipe for the updated take, or try Tyler Florence's recipe for the classic version.

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