Hazelnut Cake with Pears and Chocolate
How many of us can relate to the comedian Eddie Izzard’s joke about the three pears sitting in the fruit bowl being squeezed and poked and refusing to ripen until the human leaves the room and then they immediately rot?
He speaks the truth! For one, it IS hard to figure out when pears are ripe—they ripen from the inside out. Unlike figs that need to stay on the tree to ripen, pears will not ripen on the tree. Therefore, they are picked as soon as they mature. Some people suggest the best tasting pears ripen in the refrigerator. Anjou pears, the most popular kind in the US, don’t even change color when they are ripe. They are more egg-shaped than pear-shaped, can be red or green, and have a slight lemon-lime scented juicy flesh. Bartlett pears are the ones you see in still life paintings (pear-shaped); they can be red or yellow. The yellow ones are green when you buy them but turn yellow when ripe. Confused? No? Bosc pears have a long skinny neck with a mottled golden skin. The flesh of the bosc is also juicy and has a slight crunch when ripe. All three are good for eating, roasting, or baking, but there are many other varieties. Next time you are in Berkeley, check out Monterey Market where you will find several of them as well as an amazing array of other fruits and vegetables.
It takes a little time to peel and core the pears because it’s a bit fiddly, but you save time on the clean-up by using a food processor to combine the batter. The recipe calls for light brown sugar, but you could certainly substitute dark brown sugar for a slightly darker cake. Lastly, I buy chocolate in thin bars because they are much easier to break into smaller pieces than baking chunks, or large thick bars. You want chip-sized or smaller pieces of chocolate so as not to dominate the pear flavor. Serve it topped with vanilla ice cream, crème fraiche or just alone with a cup of tea, or port. A perfect fall dessert.
Serves 8-10
I use slightly unripe pears and this time I peeled and then grated them into the batter. You could also dice the pears rather than grate them: either option works. *
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup hazelnut flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup of light brown sugar
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate chopped into chip size or smaller pieces
2 eggs room temperature
12 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks) diced— plus a bit more for the pan
1 ½ -2 lbs. pears (about 4)
2 tablespoons apricot preserves mixed with 1 teaspoon of water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 335°
Butter a 9” springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper and butter that too.
Add both flours, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse once or twice to combine. Now add the butter and pulse until the mixture is just starting to clump.
Next add the sugar and then add the eggs one at a time. After each egg mix until combined. Peel and core 3 of the pears and either grate or dice (see note above*), add them along with the chocolate chunks to the bowl. Pulse once or twice more to distribute. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an offset spatula, even out the top and cover with the remaining sliced pears. Cook in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a rack and completely cool. Just before serving, brush the top of the cake with warm apricot preserves.
Adapted from bbcgoodfood.com
