Dark chocolate and pear cake

My favorite thing about cooking and baking is sharing the results with friends and family. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been a baking fiend here in New Zealand. Add to that the fact that it’s been down-right cold here, and nothing sounds better.

I’ve spend my whole life until now avoiding pears. They conjure bad memories of grainy, white cubes floating somehow in runny kryptonite-green jello. Ah…school cafeteria food.

But, our first week here in Christchurch, we visited the Lyttelton farmer’s market. They had some beautiful pears. They spoke to me. So, I grabbed a few and tried one.

Oh my gosh was it good. Fantastic. I love pears. (Well, at least that variety – gold something or other.)

We’ve been buying more pears than eggs the last two months because they’re that good.

When Matt and Nicole invited us over for dinner at their house with some other friends, Jeff and Fiona, we were asked to bring dessert.

At the absolute last minute I ran across this pear and chocolate cake. Yay, combining 2 of my favorite things.

The bad news…the pears at the store weren’t ripe. But, I didn’t know that until I was cutting them for the cake.

The worse news – Jeff is allergic to pears! So, I guess this didn’t go over too well, but I can tell that it has the makings of an utterly fantastic dessert. I can’t wait to try it again.

Al Di La’s Torta di Pere [Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake]
Courtesy of Al Di La Restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, via SmittenKitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, at room-temperature
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 pears, peeled, in a small dice (I used bosc, but just be sure they are soft and ripe)
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch pan and dust with breadcrumbs (I cheated and used flour), set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and very thick. (In a professional Kitchen Aid, it takes at least five minutes; on a home machine, it will take nine minutes to get sufficient volume)

While the eggs are whipping, brown the butter. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan (because it will foam a lot) and cook it until the butter browns and smells nutty (about 6 to 8 minutes). It helps to frequently scrape the solids off the bottom of the pan in the last couple minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the flame but keep in a warm spot.

Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.

Just as the egg-sugar mixture is starting to loose volume, turn the mixture down to stir, and add the flour mixture and brown butter. Add one third of the flour mixture, then half of the butter, a third of the flour, the remaining butter, and the rest of flour. Whisk until just barely combined — no more than a minute from when the flour is first added — and then use a spatula to gently fold the batter until the ingredients are combined. It is very important not to over-whisk or fold the batter or it will lose volume.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle the pear and chocolate chunks over the top, and bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back to the touch, about 40 to 50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.

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