Could I Make Pears Belle Helene With Peaches Instead?

Our answer

Nigella's Pears Belle Helene (from HOW TO EAT) poaches pears in a vanilla sugar syrup until tender and then douses them in a warm, dark chocolate sauce. This dessert is useful when you have pears that are particularly hard or under-ripe, as many supermarket pears are sold before they are ripe.

If you like the combination of peaches and dark chocolate, then you certainly could serve poached white or yellow peaches with warm chocolate sauce. You would need unripe, firm peaches but the cooking time may be slightly different. We would suggest following the peach poaching instructions and timings in Nigella's Peach Melba. And we would suggest removing the skins and stones (pits) from the peaches before serving with the chocolate sauce. If you are chilling the peaches before serving then we would recommend covering them with the poaching syrup, to reduce the risk of discolouration. If you have a lot of peaches, you may also like to try the Mint Julep Peaches.