Slow cooker poached pears

What screams autumn and festive to you more than these delicious poached pears, that are so easy and made in a slow cooker.

​For me it is the perfect autumn smell, the delicious fragrance that comes from the poaching liquid. With cinnamon, star anise and a little bit of cardamom. What’s not to love right? 

It never fails to deliver an instant cozy feeling and an image of family and friends by the fire place. Not that I actually have a fire place but you get the picture.

Poached pears from the slow cooker

My slowcooker is my biggest friend on busy days. I just drop everything in it and go about my business while the machine does the hard work. Now these poached pears can easily – and quickly – be made in a regular pot so why use the slow cooker you might wonder. I’ll tell you why.

Due to the slower cooking method the smell and flavor has all the time to infuse into the pears making the spices so much more pronounced and the end result super tasty.

What you need for making slow cooker poached pears

For making this delicious pears recipe you need – obviously – pears. Depending on where you live the types can vary. In the US it is mostly bosc pears and in the Netherlands we have Gieser Wildeman pears. You can use other types of pears too. I’m sure your greengrocer will know which pears would be best. Make sure you do not use overripe pears. They would fall apart in the slow cooker.

Other than that you need:

• Cinnamon stick
• star anise
• vanilla bean – or use vanilla extract
• mandarin zest – or a bit of lemon juice
• cranberry juice – this can be replaced by orange juice
• port wine – this is totally optional but does give it an extra delicious flavor. White wine, mulled wine or red wine is also an option. If you don’t want to use alcohol you can leave it out entirely.

I did not use any additional sugar, but if you want your pears to be a little sweeter you can add some brown sugar or white sugar. 

You place all the peeled pears snuggly in the bowl of your crock pot and add all the other ingredients. You want the pears to be submerged in the liquid. 

The cooking time will vary slightly but normally it should be enough if you let it cook for 3 to 4 hours in the liquid. You will know if it is done when they are fork tender. 

​What to serve with the pears

Once the pears are cooked I usually let them cool to room temperature in the liquid. That way the flavors have even more time to soak in. Take them out with a slotted spoon. I like to use the whole pear as that makes for a much nicer presentation and makes it quite an elegant dessert. Which is perfect for serving at Christmas dinner for instance.

You can serve it simply with the sauce that is left in the slow cooker (you can thicken it slightly on the stove with some cornstarch if you want) or you can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I sometimes even use it for dessert with some Greek yogurt or coconut cream. I also love drizzling some caramel sauce over the top as well. 

For serving I usually make a base of a cream and place pears in the middle. This works well with something like Greek yogurt or whipping cream or this delicious mascarpone and caramel sauce combination for the poached pears.