A deliciously rich flourless chocolate cake with slices of sweetly poached pear. Perfect for afternoon tea or served for dessert with a dollop of creme fraiche.
Ingredients
For the pears
50g golden caster sugar
2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into eighths lengthways
For the cake
150g dark chocolate, chopped
90g unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
90g caster sugar
90g ground hazelnuts
3 large eggs, separated
1 quantity of poached pears (see above)
1 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
Combine the sugar with 500 ml water in a saucepan and set over a medium heat. Add the pear and poach for 10–15 minutes, or until tender but not too soft (a knife should easily penetrate the flesh without any resistance). Drain and let the pear pieces cool.
Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie or double boiler. When melted, remove from the heat, add the butter and stir until the butter has melted. Add the sugar and almond meal, stirring to combine. When the mixture is cool, add the egg yolks.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease a 23cm round springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm peaks, then fold them into the chocolate batter. Pour the chocolate mixture into the tin. Arrange the pear pieces on the top of the batter, pushing them slightly in. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
When cool, remove the cake from the cake tin and, just before serving, dust liberally with icing sugar, if desired. Serve in modest slices – this is rather rich.
Notes
Recipe barely adapted from Florentine by Emiko Davies.
Recipe by thelittleloaf at http://www.thelittleloaf.com/2016/12/05/emiko-davies-pear-chocolate-cake/