Recipe: Italian in origin and just right for baking season
![]() Whether it's served for breakfast, brunch or dessert,
this cake packs a lot of flavor, but it's not too sweet.
(Photos: Kathy Morrison)
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A big bag of Comice pears from a friend inspired quite a round of baking. (Thanks, Pat!) After trying a yummy pear crisp baked in a slow cooker, I started thinking about combining chocolate and pears in a cake.
I found a number of recipes for tarts, but few for cakes until -- ah! -- hitting on one published on an Australian food blog called Not Quite Nigella. The Italian pear and chocolate breakfast cake recipe, provided by a reader who had discovered it in Sicily, had definite possibilities.
But first I had to translate it from metric measurements so I could share it with anyone who didn't own a kitchen scale. That's why the measurements below are a bit odd.
(I recommend getting a scale if you bake often or cook with a lot of homegrown produce. I use mine all the time, weighing tomatoes for recipes, especially.)
Ideally this cake uses cake flour, but I didn't have any, so made my own using all-purpose flour and cornstarch. And at the last minute I tossed in some cocoa so the chocolate chips wouldn't be the only chocolate. But in doing all this I forgot to add the baking powder, remembering only after I'd slid the cake in the oven.
Would those five pears and all that chocolate go to waste? Nope, the cake was more than edible: It was a denser version of what would have been -- more like a torte. It was lovely chilled and topped with whipped cream. Not breakfast, exactly, but there is a lot of fruit! Oil and eggs provide the fats, rather than butter and eggs -- very Italian. An espresso on the side would be perfect.
I do recommend using the baking powder, but if you happen to forget, it's still a lovely treat.
Italian pear and chocolate breakfast cake
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Adapted from a recipe on Not Quite Nigella
Serves 10-12
Ingredients:
5 pears -- Comice, Bosc or d'Anjou preferred, Bartletts being too juicy
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons flavorless oil, such as canola, plus more for greasing the pan
3/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (see note below if using cake flour)
4 tablespoons cornstarch, if using all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons baking cocoa (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup chocolate chips, or more to taste
![]() Setting the pears in a wooden spoon helps prevent
cutting through them.
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Powdered sugar, for topping
Instructions:
Peel, halve and core the pears. Using a melon baller to remove the seeds in the core gives the pears a nice appearance. Chop the two juiciest pears into small pieces; set the other three pears (six halves) aside for the top of the cake.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with a thin coating of oil.
Using an electric mixer, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl on high until the volume is at least doubled, about 5 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cocoa (if using) and salt until thoroughly combined. Using a sifter or wire strainer, sift half the dry mixture into the egg mixture, then add half the milk and fold together.
Sift in the remaining dry mixture and milk, then fold in the chopped pears and the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
![]() All ready to go into the oven now.
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Take the six remaining pear halves and, using a sharp knife, gently score the pears into thin fanlike slices without cutting all the way through. (If you've ever made Hasselback potatoes, it's the same idea. Setting the pear half on the bowl of a wooden spoon is useful to prevent cutting all the way through.)
Alternatively, set the pear halves on the cut side and score the rounded side, or even do three one way and three the other, whatever appeals to you
Place the scored pear halves on top of the cake batter, arranged with the stem end pointing into the middle. Gently push the pears just a little into the batter.
Bake cake for 1 hour or up to 1 hour 20 minutes, until skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (melty chocolate chips don't count).
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing the ring of the springform pan. (Run a knife along the inside before loosening the ring.)
Cool thoroughly; sprinkle cake with powdered sugar before serving. Whipped cream or vanilla gelato is an excellent accompaniment if the cake is served for dessert.
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Note for using cake flour: The original calls for 250g or 8.83 ounces of cake flour. I didn't want to hazard a guess on translating that to cups -- the flours have different densities -- but wanted to include the original just in case. And don’t add the cornstarch, of course.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 22
Mornings this first week of summer will remain comfortably cool – just right for gardening!
* Water early in the morning to cut down on evaporation. Check soil moisture and deep water trees and shrubs. Keep new transplants and veggies evenly moist. Deep water tomatoes to encourage deep roots.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.
* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather.
* Avoid pot “hot feet.” Place a 1-inch-thick board under container plants sitting on pavement. This little cushion helps insulate them from radiated heat.
* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.
* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.