Lately I seem to be on a roll with chocolate mixed up with something else like bread pudding (the Chocolate Banana Croissant Bread Pudding, for instance). This time it’s a cake, made in a springform pan, with chocolate and fresh pear.
The recipe came from a restaurant in Brooklyn, called Al Di La, and I read about it over at Smitten Kitchen’s blog some time back. I printed it out and knew there would come a time to try it. If you’re interested to read about all the people who have made this cake, the pitfalls and successes, do read all of the comments. They go on, and on, and on!
The making of this cake is not difficult – you do have to whip up the eggs for many, many minutes. You would not want to do this with a hand mixer, trust me. You’ll want a stand mixer. It took about nine minutes to get the eggs to a light yellow ribbony thickness. Meanwhile you brown some butter (that’s a different technique for a cake, eh?) and once that’s done you gently mix in sugar. Then you alternately add a flour/baking powder/salt mixture with the warm-to-hot browned butter. Quickly it goes into a buttered and floured springform pan and the freshly cubed pear and chunked-up bittersweet (I had to use semisweet because that’s all I had on hand) chocolate pieces are sprinkled all over the top. That’s it. It’s baked for about 35-40 minutes (or more if you have a particularly wet batter). Some of the chocolate stays on top, but the pears all sink inside the batter.
As soon as I tasted the raw batter I knew this recipe was going to be a winner. I could really taste the richness of the browned butter. What a combo! In a cake! Browned butter is something that does take a little extra time – and I caution you – do NOT leave the stove for even a second while you’re making it or you may have burned butter, okay? Use a heavy duty pan – preferably one that’s light colored. If you use a nonstick pan, you cannot see when the butter has turned brown. Trust me on this! A stainless pan is best! I have one other great recipe here on my blog using browned butter – a Pear Crisp with Vanilla Browned Butter.
You can see the pear cubes toward the bottom in this picture. And the outer edge is just deliciously crispy. Loved that part. Then there’s the whipped cream – flavored with almond extract. Oooh, that was luscious. Everything about this cake was wonderful. The light texture of the cake (from all that whipping), the good chocolate chunks, the pears, and the topping. This recipe is a keeper.
Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake
Recipe By: Courtesy of Al Di La Restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Serving Size: 10
NOTES: DO use pears that are barely under-ripe, and still firm. A soggy batter is your enemy here. If you use juicy pears, you’ll have a soggy pear mass in the bottom that won’t bake through. If you have large (like Bosc), use just two pears, not three. You can also serve this with vanilla ice cream, or creme fraiche.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs — at room-temperature
4 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 whole pears — peeled, in a small dice (just under-ripe and firm, not juicy)
3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate — chopped in chunks
WHIPPED CREAM:
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust with breadcrumbs or flour (tap out any excess), and set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside. Chop the chocolate and set aside. While the eggs are whipping (step 3), peel, core and chop the pears. Left open to the air they will turn brown – you can drop them into a bowl of Squirt (carbonated beverage), which will keep them fresh. When ready to use, drain and roll pears out onto a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture.
3. 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.)
4. 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.
5. Add the sugar to the eggs and whip a few minutes more.
6. 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.
7. 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 30-50 minutes, or a tester comes out clean.
8. Serve it with barely whipped whipped cream with a drop of almond extract in it, At the restaurant they serve it with buttermilk ice cream.
Per Serving: 374 Calories; 25g Fat (57.9% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 37g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 121mg Cholesterol; 233mg Sodium.
A year ago: Beef and Biscuit Casserole
Two years ago: Balsamic Onion Marmalade (a condiment)
Three years ago: Buttermilk Scones (my all-time favorite scones)
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