I think it’s now a fair assumption that the warm weather has gone for the year, and I couldn’t be more delighted.

I love autumn so much, with its crisp, misty mornings, tumbling russet leaves, and, most importantly, warm steamy kitchens.

For chefs, it’s a great time to cook, as we can dispense with the delicate dishes for a while and get stuck right into the big flavourful stuff.

Now is the time for the deep casserole dish to come out of the cupboard and put its shift in. Just look at what’s available about this time of the year, and you’ll instantly want to get cooking.

Meat-wise, a good shoulder of lamb or belly of pork is just crying out for an autumnal treatment. And what accompaniments we have!

Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot, pumpkins and squash all vie for our attention, perfect for soups and stews or baked into crusty pies. Leeks, salsify, marrows and turnips, bursting with flavour, are just waiting for you to fill your basket.

There are still some late berries left, and apples are good, especially bakers, and the perfumed intensity of the quince is at its peak – a favourite fruit of mine which works as well with meat and cheese as it does with dessert preparations.

If you have a tree nearby, you should be taking full advantage. Also in the prime of their lives are pears, and it’s to this succulent native beauty that we turn our attention today.

Pears are incredibly versatile fruit, and not just in the world of desserts. They go well with roast game, pork, and lamb. A good cured ham is wonderful when wrapped around a sliver of chilled pear, and the fruit is also dynamite with blue cheese (a quick salad of Roquefort, diced pear, bitter leaves and walnuts is a super-savoury autumn classic).

But we’re making a dessert today. I’ve said many times that I’m not really one for fruit and chocolate, but there are a few notable exceptions, one of which is the magical twinning of pears with chocolate.

The classic Escoffier dish ‘Poire Belle Hélène’ combines poached pears with rich dark chocolate and almonds to perfection. And this recipe is a riff on that original combination, using a wonderfully versatile chocolate soup-soufflé recipe at its heart.

I tried this once in a restaurant in Clermont-Ferrand, and I’ve cooked it hundreds of times in dozens of different ways.

A warm, creamy, almost custard-like chocolate soup which rises to a thin crust like a soufflé, it’s brilliant just on its own, but when you add extra dimensions like the tang of confit orange, a whisper of mint, the depth of a little coffee or the chill of ice-cream, it really comes to life.

A great recipe to have handy, it takes only seconds to make, keeps for days, and is so ridiculously easy you’ll find yourself cooking it over and over again.

Into our soup we’re going to pop a small poached pear, for textural contrast and that heavenly flavour combination.

For this recipe, look out for the smaller, neater dessert pears such as Comice, Rocha or Forelle (a personal favourite) but any small ripe pear will do.

I thought the dish needed something crunchy to go with it as a textural contrast, and decided upon a nice, buttery hazelnut crisp, based on a recipe originally formulated by Simon Rogan at the amazing l’Enclume restaurant in Cartmel.

It’s a little bit tech-y, but not at all difficult, and you can make these at your leisure days in advance. They provide a suitable textural contrast with the silky pear and creamy chocolate. Aprons on!

For the pears:

4 small dessert pears

500g unrefined golden caster sugar

450ml water

The juice and zest of a lemon

For the chocolate soup-soufflé base:

400ml double cream

100g bitter chocolate

A pinch of Maldon salt

For the hazelnut crisps:

100g liquid glucose

480g caster sugar

500g chopped hazelnuts

500g white bread, finely diced

200g cornflour

320g icing sugar

160g butter, melted

Pinch of Maldon salt

4 fresh, free-range eggs, beaten

To serve:

1 fresh, free-range egg white per person

A pinch unrefined golden caster sugar

Method:

First, make the soup-soufflé base. In a pan, gently warm the cream with a pinch of salt (this helps the chocolate flavour), and when it’s just about to boil, remove from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until completely smooth.

Pour into a jug or bowl, and allow the mixture to chill until set. This can be done several days in advance.

Now poach the pears; heat the sugar, lemon juice and water until dissolved, then bring to the boil and bubble for 5 minutes.

Peel the pears, leaving the stalks intact if possible, and, using a melon-baller or teaspoon, remove the core, leaving the pears whole.

Poach the pears gently in the syrup until tender.

Remove from the syrup (you can freeze and re-use this) and chill the pears until required.

Now for the crisps; preheat the oven to 150ºC. In a pan over a medium heat, dissolve the glucose and caster sugar in 300ml water and heat to the hard-crack stage (around 150ºC)

Quickly mix in the chopped hazelnuts and pour onto a sheet of baking parchment, placing another sheet of baking parchment on top, and use a rolling pin to roll out the mix as thinly as possible.

Leave this to set hard and cool completely, before breaking it into small pieces and pulsing in a food processor until it resembles lumpy breadcrumbs.

Bake the bread cubes in the oven for about 10 minutes or until a deep golden brown. Whizz quickly in the processor until the bread looks the same as the hazelnut crumbs. Turn the oven up to 160ºC. In a bowl, sift the cornflour and icing sugar, then add the chopped hazelnut and bread mix.

Stir in the melted butter, a pinch of salt, and the beaten eggs. Spread the mixture about a centimetre thick onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes until golden. When the crisp is cool enough to handle break it into shards. Cool completely and store in an airtight container until required.

To serve, allow one large serving spoon of chocolate mixture per person, and one egg white. In a bowl, beat the chocolate cream mixture until it loosens. Whisk the egg whites until the soft peak stage, add a pinch of sugar, and beat to a glossy stiff peak.

Gently fold this into the chocolate mixture. Spoon into suitable ovenproof bowls or ramekins, and place a pear in the centre.

Bake at 220ºC / Gas 7 for 5-10 minutes or until the soup has risen and formed a crust.

Serve with the hazelnut crisps.