Chocolate Pear Cake

I know that I’m easily distracted, but sometimes that leads to very good things. The other day, I was thumbing through Donna Hay’s book Flavors looking for something, and now I don’t even remember what that was. As the pages of the chocolate chapter flipped by, I caught a glimpse of the gorgeous cake with halved pears nestled into it with a sticky, caramelly top. I had to know more about this cake. There were pears in my refrigerator that had just arrived from my CSA, and I always have cocoa powder on hand. It was entirely possible that I could go straight to the kitchen and make this cake. A quick scan of the ingredient list confirmed that I indeed had everything I would need. And, hence, off I went forgetting all about whatever it was that made me pick up the book in the first place. I’m sure I’ll think of it eventually, but for the time being, I was very happy to focus on this chocolate pear cake. It’s an easy, upside-down, fruit-filled cake with a built-in caramel sauce that ends up glistening on top and settling into the cored-out pears when the cake is turned out onto a platter.

You’ll want to use small pears, and the ones I had were just the right size. They should be peeled, halved, and cored. I use a melon baller to remove the cores from pears and then a knife to cut out any pieces of core that are missed on the edges of the pears. The pear halves were cooked in a skillet in a mixture of melted butter, brown sugar, and water. You’ll need to adjust the cooking time depending on how firm your pears are. They should soften some but still be able to hold their shape while baking. After a few minutes or so of cooking, the skillet was removed from the heat and set aside. A nine inch round cake pan was lined with parchment paper. Then, room temperature butter and more brown sugar were mixed, and three eggs were added one at a time. Flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder were sifted together and then stirred into the butter mixture. The pears were placed in the prepared cake pan cut-side down, and the buttery caramel was poured over them. The chocolate batter was spooned over the pears, and the cake baked for 50 minutes.

It’s suggested that the cake be served with cream, but I was very happy with it just as it was. With the fruit and caramel, the cake doesn’t stand a chance of becoming dry, and it didn’t last long enough to do so anyway. Chocolate, pears, and caramel were absolutely worth the distraction. Now, I should try to remember what I was looking for in the first place.

Crostata with Pears, Apples, and Taleggio

I was flipping tv channels a couple of weeks ago, and I caught the very end of a segment in which Giada was making a rustic crostata with dried apricots, walnuts, and cubes of taleggio. It sounded like such an interesting mix, and it sounded so autumnal, I was sure I could make it seem like fall around here by baking it. By the time I was ready to get baking, we had received some apples and pears from our CSA, so I changed the plan just slightly by using those fresh fruits instead of dried apricots. Now, about that cheese, yes, it is usually a savory cheese. Taleggio is a soft, washed rind cheese that’s relatively mild-flavored, and I was curious about how it would work in a sweet dessert. As it melted into the fruit and nuts, it added richness and interest, and if you weren’t told it was there, you might not realize there was cheese in the filling at all. The crostata was perfect served warm from the oven, and I preferred the leftovers re-heated rather than served cold from the refrigerator.

There wasn’t just cheese in the filling, there was also mascarpone in the crust. The dough was made in a food processor by combining flour, salt, sugar, and butter. It was pulsed until the butter was coarsely mixed into the flour, and mascarpone and lemon juice were added. The machine was pulsed a few more times, and then it was left running briefly while ice water was added. The dough was wrapped and refrigerated for 30 minutes before being rolled out on parchment paper cut to the size of a baking sheet. That was a great tip by the way. By rolling the dough on parchment paper, it was very easy to lift the paper and move it with the dough to a baking sheet in one fell swoop. Then, the dough was topped with a mixed of chopped pears, apples, walnuts, half of the cubed taleggio, a little flour since I was using fresh fruit, lemon zest, cinnamon, sea salt, and honey. The edges of the dough were rolled up and over, and the remaining cubed cheese was scattered on top. The dough edges received an egg wash, and the crostata baked for about 40 minutes.

I will say this is not a dessert for ice cream or whipped cream on the side. It requires no embellishment, but it was delicious with a glass of wine. Nuts, honey, fruit, and cheese were enveloped in a golden, flaky crust, and the warm, sweet flavors were accented by the mildly tangy cheese. It’s still about 95 degrees, so I didn’t make fall happen, but the flavors made it seem like fall should be coming soon.

Wine Poached Fruit

This is a dish that I've seen Ina prepare a few times. What I mean by that is that I've seen the episode in which she prepares this a few times, and yes, I always watch Ina, even when I've seen the episode more than once. So, I just saw this episode again the other day, and it seemed like a perfect dessert for this time of year. It looked so simple, and the plumped dried fruit looked like it would add great flavor and texture. The other inspiration for this poached fruit dish was a bottle of Essensia dessert wine which I received as a sample from Quady Winery. Ina suggested vin santo or sauternes, but any sweet, dessert wine would work well. The Essensia smelled like fruit and honey and the flavor was sweet, without being too much so, and there were hints of citrus. This is not a syrupy dessert wine, and the sweetness is well-balanced. The alcohol content is 15 percent which is in the range of vin santo in which the alcohol is usually between 14 and 17 percent. This would be a lovely wine to sip with some goat cheese and honey, and it was delicious as a poaching liquid for pears.

The perfect poached fruit recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa Parties! book and it's also on the Food Network site. The pears were peeled and then seeded from the bottom. As suggested, I used a melon baller to cut into the base of each pear and remove the seeds. Then, the poaching liquid was made from the wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks, one split vanilla bean, a few whole cloves, and julienned strips of orange and lemon zest. That mixture was brought to a boil so as to dissolve the sugar, and then it simmered for 10 minutes. The pears were added and left to poach in the simmering, fragrant elixir for 20 minutes or until tender, and they were turned once during that time. Last, dried figs, apricots, and prunes were added and allowed to simmer until plumped.

This was a comforting dish with the warmth of the spices, brightness of the citrus, and freshness of the pears. The combination of fruits and spices in the wine sauce tasted like pie without the crust. I was struck by the richness of it given that it was just fruit, wine, sugar and spices and had to stop and think about the fact that it was a fat-free dessert. It wasn't calorie-free, but it was fat-free. This can be made in advance and chilled, and since leftovers continue to absorb the flavor from the poaching liquid, it gets even better by the next day.