A light, but luscious cake made with hazelnuts – serve a slice for dessert with a dollop of crème fraîche
Ingredients
- 85g butter, plus 1 tbsp extra for tin
- 85g golden caster sugar, plus extra for tin
- 85g gluten-free dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 1 tbsp brandy
- 3 eggs, separated
- 85g hazelnut, toasted and ground in a food processor
- 4 very ripe pears, peeled, halved and cored icing sugar, for dusting
Method
- 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.
- Heat oven to 180C.
- 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.
- 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.
Recipe from BBC Good Food
