Christmas Tea Poached Pears

1. Bring the litre of water to the boil, take it off the heat for 30 seconds, then stir in the tea and leave it to brew for 4 minutes.
2. Strain the tea into a deep saucepan through a fine sieve and discard the leaves. Nothing solid should go into the pan.
3. Add the sugar, the lemon peel and the lemon juice, and stir over low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved.
4. Peel the pears with a swivel peeler, leaving the stalks on, and cut a thin slice off each base so they will stand up.
5. Lower the pears into the liquid as you peel them. Exposed pear flesh browns within minutes, and the lemon in the pan stops it.
6. Cut a circle of baking paper the width of the pan, make a small hole in the middle and press it down onto the surface. Without it the shoulders sit above the liquid and stay hard and pale.
7. Bring the pan to the barest simmer and hold it there for 25 to 30 minutes. A rolling boil knocks the pears about and splits them.
8. Test with a skewer at 25 minutes. It should slide into the thickest part with only slight resistance. Firm pears can take 35 minutes and that is fine.
9. Lift the pears out with a slotted spoon, then boil the liquid hard for 12 to 15 minutes until it has reduced by about two thirds and coats a spoon.
10. Take the syrup off the heat, stir in the orange blossom water if you are using it, and pour it back over the pears. Cool, then chill overnight.

Buying pears in December

Australian pears are harvested from about February to April and then held in cold storage, so December fruit is stored rather than freshly picked. For most uses that is a drawback. For poaching it is an advantage, because stored pears are usually firm, and firm is what this recipe wants. Buy them hard on purpose.

Questions we get asked

Which pears hold their shape when poached?

Beurre Bosc first, every time. It is dense, low in water and it keeps its outline even after 35 minutes. Corella is the next best and looks good served whole, though it is small enough that most people want two. Packham and Williams are both too soft once ripe and will turn to pulp at the core. Whatever the variety, buy fruit that gives nothing at all when you press the neck.

Can you poach pears in advance?

They are better in advance. Left in the syrup overnight in the fridge the colour works its way all the way to the core rather than sitting in the outer few millimetres, and the texture evens out. They keep four days covered in their liquid. Serve them cold, at room temperature, or warmed through gently in the syrup, but do not reheat them hard or they go grainy.

What tea is best for poaching fruit?

A black tea, because you want tannin and colour. A spiced Christmas blend gives you the aromatics as well, which saves buying a cinnamon stick you use once. Earl Grey works and brings bergamot. Avoid green tea, which turns bitter and grassy the moment it is held near a simmer, and avoid fruit infusions built on hibiscus, which are already sour and make a syrup that tastes thin.

How to serve them

A spoonful of Borgo pistachio cream at $14.95 under each pear does more than cream, because the nut and the tannin sit well together. Something crisp helps too: VPC ginger shortbread at $7.95 or Jen's Melting Moments at $9.95. Keep the leftover syrup in a jar for a fortnight, over yoghurt or stirred into soda water. Poached fruit also belongs at breakfast, which our Christmas breakfast guide covers.

Whittard Christmas Tea is $29.95 for a 75g clip top tin and sits with the rest of our tea and coffee range, next to the biscuits that go beside it and the festive entertaining essentials for the rest of the table. There are more puddings of this kind in our easy Christmas desserts. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post.