Poires Belle Hélène — pears with ice cream and chocolate

Wash four similar-sized pears, peel them, and halve lengthwise. Use a small spoon to remove the cores, tough fibers, and stems. You need 600 g prepared raw flesh in eight halves. Drizzle with all 15 g lemon juice, keeping any juice that collects in the bowl.

In a wide saucepan with a lid, about 24–26 cm across, pour all 250 g water. Add 60 g white sugar and 8 g sugar with real vanilla. Heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves and the liquid gently simmers. Add the pears with all the juice from the bowl, arranging in one layer, cut sides down.

Cover and cook over low heat for about 15–25 minutes, depending on the firmness of the fruit. The syrup should barely simmer. Halfway through, gently turn the halves and spoon the liquid over them. Test with a thin knife: it should slide in easily, but the pears must still hold their shape. Do not let the syrup boil vigorously or the flesh fall apart.

Lift the tender halves into a shallow dish with a slotted spoon. Leave for about 15 minutes so they are no longer hot, and make the sauce meanwhile. Pour any juices that collect beneath the pears back into the saucepan. Keep all the poaching syrup: it is part of the sauce, not a separate liquid to discard.

Boil the remaining syrup without a lid for about 5–10 minutes, until roughly 120 g remains and it thickens slightly. It should stay pale and flow freely from a spoon without caramelizing. If checking the weight, pour it into a heatproof container; do not put the hot saucepan on the scale. Keep the entire reduced quantity.

Add 40 g weighed milk to all the warm syrup and heat just until steam appears. Remove from the heat, add all 100 g chopped chocolate, and wait a minute. Stir from the center until smooth and glossy. Scrape the chocolate from the spatula into the saucepan; do not boil the sauce once combined.

Set the sauce aside for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should still be fluid and warm, but no longer scalding or visibly steaming. If the pears are still very hot, give them a little longer to cool. Keep the ice cream in the freezer until the last moment; you need all 240 g, without converting the package volume into weight.

Prepare four shallow bowls or dessert plates. Arrange two pear halves on each and add 60 g vanilla ice cream. Use all eight halves and the entire weighed portion of ice cream. Do not assemble ahead of time: the ice cream should stay cold and the fruit keep its tender texture.

Divide all the sauce among four portions, pouring mainly over the pears and partly over the ice cream. Scrape out the saucepan to use the full prepared quantity. Serve immediately without extra nuts, whipped cream, or garnish. One portion is two halves, 60 g ice cream, and a quarter of the sauce, approximately 275 g in total.

If making ahead, transfer the cooled pears and sauce to separate covered containers and refrigerate; use within two days. Before serving, reheat the sauce gently while stirring, without boiling and without adding milk. Add the ice cream only when assembling each portion; do not refreeze thawed ice cream.