There is no sincerer love than the love of food.
- George Bernard Shaw.
One of the best ways to usher in the New Year is to hold a plate in your hand with a slice (or two) of moist and nutty cake drizzled with a warm dark chocolate ganaché.
The moistness in this cake comes from the Pears and the bite from Hazelnuts and of course with Chocolate everything becomes extra yummy!
I had a can of pears lying in my pantry for a couple of months. After going through my cookbook collection, I could not find a single recipe that called for tinned pears. Fresh pears that were cooked with sugar dominated all the recipes. Substituting canned pears with fresh ones did not seem a very good idea since quite a few changes would have to be made. So what if the recipe does not work for the first time? I just had one can after all!
It was time to come up with my own recipe :D
This loaf cake is pretty simple to make, you just need one bowl and not even a stand mixer. Since I also wanted to add some bite to this moist dessert, I added in some hazelnuts to the batter since pears and hazelnuts work quite well together. Not that I need an excuse to indulge in chocolate, but you see chocolate combined with pears and hazelnuts tastes yummmm.
Let's get to baking this cake then!
Recipe Source: Bakingyummies
Makes one 8.5 inches* 4.5 inches loaf cake.
Ingredients
For the Cake
227 grams / 8 ounces canned pears in syrup.
95 grams / 3.5 ounces / 1 cup all purpose or plain flour.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
Pinch of salt.
75 grams / 2.5 ounces / 1/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature.
60 grams / 2 ounces / 1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar.
1 large egg at room temperature.
40 grams / 1.5 ounces / 1/4 cup hazelnuts toasted and skinned.
For Chocolate Ganaché Glaze
1.5 ounces / 45 grams / 1/4 cup dark chocolate.
160 ml / 5.5 ounces / 2/3 cup heavy cream.
Method
For the Cake.
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C / 320 degrees F. Grease an 8.5 inches* 4.5 inches loaf tin and line base with parchment.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Whisk to mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Drain pears reserving 2 tablespoons of the syrup. Roughly chop the pears. Coarsely chop the hazelnuts.
Combine the butter, sugar, egg and flour in a bowl and beat until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. Fold in the pears along with the syrup and the hazelnuts. Turn the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 50 mins to an hour or until a cake tester comes out with a few dry crumbs attached to it. Place the tin on a wire rack to cool for a couple of minutes. Turn out the cake on a wire rack and peel off the parchment. Let cool completely.
For the Chocolate Ganaché Glaze:
Place the chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl. In a small pan, bring the cream to a simmer. Immediately pour the cream on the chocolate. Let stand without stirring until the chocolate starts to melt.
Storage Suggestions: The cake can be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days or frozen for up to a month.
Happy Baking!!!
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