A great cheat on this one is to used tinned pears. Boil in the can syrup and you can cut out the water, caster sugar and lemon.

1 squeeze lemon juice 100g Florentine biscuits 100g dark chocolate 4 pears 1 squeeze lemon juice 1 litre water 100g caster sugar 100g/4oz florentine biscuits (any nice cookie will do)

Peel the pears, cut them in half and, with a teaspoon, scoop out the cores. Poach the pears in sugar water, with a squeeze of lemon to stop the pears going brown and a vanilla pod. Slide the fruit into the syrup and leave to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes until the pears are tender to the point of a knife. Let the pears cool in their syrup for a good hour, then lift them out and put them in a shallow dish in the fridge. Whip the cream softly - it should not be too stiff - then add the roughly chopped Florentines.

Break the dark chocolate into small squares and melt in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Just melt it down – don’t stir it. As soon as the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat, and fill the pears with the Florentines cream. Trickle over the chocolate in thin zigzag lines, leave in the fridge for a few minutes to crisp