chocolate peared cake

RECIPE FORUM Your Favorite Recipes
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Ingredients:

1/2 cup All-purpose flour
1/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup boiling water
3 Pears - skinned & Halved (look for smaller sizes)
Some Confectioners sugar to top it all at the end…

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
Thoroughly grease 4-5 ramekins with oil…
Fill cups 1/2 full with batter. (if the size of pears is large-ish, consider filling 1/3 else it with overflow massively)
Slowly lower a pealed half pear into each ramekins.
Bake 22 to 25 minutes.
Insert a toothpick to check if it has baked fully (it is ready if the toothpick comes out clean)
Let it cool completely.
Sprinkle with some confectioners sugar
And we are ready to go.

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  • 85g butter , plus 1 tbsp extra for tin
    • 85g golden caster sugar , plus extra for tin
    • 85g gluten-free dark chocolate , broken into pieces
    • 1 tbsp brandy
    • 3 eggs , separated
    • 85g hazelnuts , toasted and ground in a food processor
    • 4 very ripe pears , peeled, halved and cored
    • icing sugar , for dusting
    1. Cut a circle of baking parchment to fit the base of a 25cm loose-bottomed tin. Melt 1 tbsp butter and brush the inside of the tin, then line the base with the parchment and brush again with more butter. Spoon in 2 tbsp caster sugar, swirl it around to coat the base and sides, then tip out any excess.
    2. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water, remove from the heat, stir in the brandy and leave to cool. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick; fold into the chocolate with the hazelnuts.
    3. In a separate bowl, with a clean whisk, beat the whites until they reach a soft peak (try not to whisk them too stiffly or you’ll have trouble folding them in). Stir a spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mix, then carefully fold in the rest of them in 2 additions. Spoon into the prepared tin. Level, then arrange the pears over the mixture, cut-side down. Bake for 40 mins until the pears are soft and the cake is cooked all the way through. Leave to cool in the tin slightly before releasing it, then place on a rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche.