Flourless chocolate & pear cake

Flourless chocolate & pear cake

By Barney Desmazery
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(67 ratings)
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Prep: 20 mins Cook: 40 mins

More effort

Serves 8
A light, but luscious cake made with hazelnuts - serve a slice for dessert with a dollop of crème fraîche

Nutrition and extra info

  • Vegetarian
  • Gluten-free

Nutrition: per serving

  • kcal334
  • fat23g
  • saturates9g
  • carbs28g
  • sugars28g
  • fibre0g
  • protein5g
  • salt0.28g
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Ingredients

  • 85g butter, plus 1 tbsp extra for tin
    Butter

    Butter

    butt-err

    Butter is made when lactic-acid producing bacteria are added to cream and churned to make an…

  • 85g golden caster sugar, plus extra for tin
  • 85g gluten-free dark chocolate, broken into pieces
    Dark chocolate soup pots with double cream in spoons

    Dark chocolate

    dahk chok-lit

    Dark chocolate means the shiny, dark-reddish brown treat produced from the cacao bean, theobroma…

  • 1 tbsp brandy
    Brandy

    Brandy

    bran-dee

    Brandy is a distilled spirit made from virtually any fermented fruit or starchy vegetable.…

  • 3 eggs, separated
    Eggs

    Egg

    egg

    The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition, packed with protein and a…

  • 85g hazelnut, toasted and ground in a food processor
    Hazelnuts

    Hazelnut

    hay-zl-nut

    Grown in Europe and the US, hazelnuts are encased in a smooth, hard brown shell but are most…

  • 4 very ripe pears, peeled, halved and cored
    Pear

    Pear

    pair

    Like apples, to which they are related, pears come in thousands of varieties, of which only a…

  • icing sugar, for dusting

Method

  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.

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Comments, questions and tips

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katryb
11th May, 2017
5.05
Second time I have made this - I love it. Superb desert for GF friends. I used raspberries this time like a previous poster - good tip, it is much better IMO. I upped the ingredients to 100g of everything not 85g given the hazelnuts and chocolate came in 100g packs and I used 22cm cake tin which was the perfect size.
lizleicester
22nd Jan, 2017
3.8
Definitely more of a pudding than a cake but delicious nonetheless. The roasted hazelnuts give a wonderful flavour. I think I would have whisked the egg whites till they were stiffer, despite being harder to fold in, because the mixture was a little bit too loose and stayed very moist even when cooked.
salbal
11th Oct, 2016
Made this last night. Used shop bought ground almonds which worked fine. Added pears at the beginning and they didn't sink. Also used a 23cm tin rather than 25cm as in recipe which would lead to a very thin cake I think. My husband and daughter had several helpings! Will definitely be making this again.
manuelastrametz
28th Jul, 2016
5.05
Love it. Absolutely fluffy and moist. Didn't prebake the cake before putting in the pears so yes they sunk in, but I personally don't mind that so much. I can imagine it would work with any kind of fruit and different kinds of nuts.
sargyle
28th Jan, 2016
Can anybody tell me please if the oven temp of 180 fan is correct? I've never seen a fan setting that's higher than the regular oven setting.
lilaclozenge
6th Feb, 2016
180 is for the regular oven, 160 is for the fan oven hth :)
needbe
13th Nov, 2015
5.05
Delicious, light dessert cake. I used ground almonds for convenience, slightly browned in a dry pan, and substituted the brandy for amaretto. The only thing I would question is the size of tin suggested. I used a 23 cm tin, and that was fine. Any larger, and I feel the cake may have been too flat.
mimsy1
9th Oct, 2015
5.05
This was lovely. I used amaretto instead of brandy and raspberries instead of pears and put the raspberries in straight away. They didn't sink and the whole thing was lovely. It was for a dinner party for GF person and 3 non-GF and all enjoyed it. Will definitely be making again. So quick and easy too.
emmaleg
28th Sep, 2015
3.8
I made this with ground almonds, left out the brandy and used honey instead of sugar (the same amount) as I'm trying to go for healthier forms of sugar! I also cut the pear into slices and had no problem with sinking. I felt it only needed 3 pears, not 4. It was a lovely pudding cake, best served warm and with some cream or ice cream. Would definitely make again but I will be trying hazelnuts next time and perhaps raspberries instead of pears.
RachMck14
9th May, 2015
I am making this cake for the second time today. It is delicious. I leave out the pears completely, replace the hazelnuts with ground almonds as others suggest and use a rubber cake mould so the cake pops out easily when baked. Serve with raspberries and ice cream. A total crowd pleaser!

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Gemma Cockerham
11th Oct, 2017
How long does this cake keep?
LeonieSeren
10th Apr, 2017
5.05
Anyone tried this without sugar or with something natural like honey, maple or agave? Thank you
katryb
11th May, 2017
5.05
1. Sugar is 'natural'. You know it comes from plants? 2. Agave is generally touted as being good as it is a low GI, but it is high fructose which is more harmful than higher GI of sugar.
maryyoung
12th Nov, 2015
Can this be made a day ahead?
needbe
13th Nov, 2015
5.05
I don't see why not, as long as you warm it up slightly in the oven before serving.
BeckyOP
22nd Dec, 2013
Is it possible to freeze this cake?
lb02252
23rd Mar, 2014
My suggestions for this recipe would be: 1. Use baking powder. There's none in the recipe and my cake was only a couple of centimetres high. 2. Use brandy rather than amaretto. I used Amaretto which made it too almondy (but then I did use ground almonds rather than hazelnuts).