Cooking time: 45 minutes

The classic French dessert Poire Belle-Hélène, was created around 1864 by Auguste Escoffier and named after the operetta La belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach.

1. Heat the water, powdered sugar, the split and scraped vanilla bean and the lemon juice and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Peel the pears, leaving the stems on, and immerse them in the hot syrup.
3. Cook for about 30 minutes until the pears are well cooked and then let them cool in the syrup.
4. Just before serving, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, add the milk and stir with a spatula until smooth.
5. Place a pear and a scoop of vanilla ice cream into each dessert dish.
6. Spoon on the hot chocolate sauce and serve immediately.