Pear & Hazelnut Bread

I don’t know about you but at ours we have our regular work packs – sandwich, crisps, chocolate bar and a breakfast bar is our little pack up. This week we decided to take soups instead of sandwiches, and I was going to make muffins instead of  breakfast biscuits.

I decided to pop on WordPress for a bit of inspiration and as luck would have it, up popped this recipe at the top of my feed. Check it out on Carolyn’s blog – Delicious on a Dollar, she’s not only  great cook, she’s a talented ballroom dancer too!

I converted all of the measurements from cups to grams, I made an error and added too much sugar (a cup and half rather than two thirds) but the flavours were amazing and although I took a couple of pieces into work for Sophie & Jacci, for me, it didn’t even make it was Saturday morning breakfast. Mr S said it was the nicest bake for a while.

The flavours coming through from the cardamom and cloves were just sensational! The magic of the pears just made it so moist too. Believe me, if you make this you will not be disappointed.

That’s two bakes and a cheesecake in November and with Christmas coming up I might actually master it 😉

I’ll forget the soups for a while – I’d forgotten how much I detest microwaves.

Squidgy Pear & Hazelnut Chocolate Spread Cake

Mr S does not have much of a sweet tooth so he keeps surprising me by asking for cake. I think I’m improving my baking skills.

He was flicking through the current BBC Good Food magazine and requested this.

400g hazelnut spread

50g softened unsalted butter

3 eggs at room temperature

140g self raising flour

25g cocoa

2 ripened pears

Apricot jam

50g hazelnuts

Heat the oven to 140ºC (Fan) & line a 23cm cake tin.

Put the chocolate spread into a bowl with the butter, eggs & a pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth & bubbly.

Now this is a dangerous game in my kitchen as I have a Dualit hand mixer and it’s low setting could launch a rocket into space. One false move and the kitchen could have some unusual decoration. I keep explaining to Mr S how delicious the cakes would be with a Kitchen Aid sitting in the corner but he’s not taking the bait. He did buy me a new mixing bowl on Sunday though.

Sift the flour & cocoa into the bowl and fold in until smooth. Put the mixture into the cake tin.

Peel, core & quarter the pears then cut 4 slits into the fat bit of the pear quarter, leaving the top intact. Fan  out and brush with the jam. Place on the cake but don’t press in. Repeat with all of your quarters of pear in a clock face fashion.

Scatter with the hazelnuts. I chopped some of mine and left some whole.

Bake for 40 minutes. It should have a thin crust and wobble slightly. You DO want some cake batter to come out on your skewer as this is more brownie than cake.

Brush some more jam on the pears – it stops them going brown.

I forgot to photograph my whole cake.

It’s delicious hot or cold. With or without cream.