Can I Use Poached Pears For The Chocolate Pear Pudding?

Our answer

NIgella's Chocolate Pear Pudding (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) is an Express recipe as the sponge batter is made quickly in a food processor and the pears are canned, so are already soft and ready to use. We suspect that it would be possible to use pears that you have poached yourself, though it will then not be an Express recipe.

You will need 4 larger, firm pears (such as Williams/Bartlett) for the recipe and they should be poached in a simple sugar syrup. We would suggest following Nigella's instructions for poaching pears in the Pears Belle Helene recipe. We would suggest letting the poached pears cool to room temperature before using them or if you have poached them in advance and refrigerated them, then put the pear halves in the bottom of the baking dish around 30 minutes before you make the sponge batter, so that they lose some of their fridge chill.