pear torte
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Inspired by the famous plum torte recipe by Marion Burros (which has quickly become one of my favorite recipes), I’ve made a fall variation for when the plums disappear and are replaced by a bounty of pears. It’s quick and easy to throw together, and a fantastic fall treat to pear (get it??) with a cup of coffee. Alternatively, we ate this with a scoop of ice cream because why not.
A few tips for success
Use ripe but still firm pears, and don’t over poach them to maintain a better texture.
After coming out of the oven, feel free to glaze the pears with some simple syrup and top with some powdered sugar
Pear Torte
makes a 9 in. cake
ingredients
for poaching the pears:
3 pears, peeled
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
half a lemon
1 cinnamon stick
and the rest:
3/4 cup AP flour
1/4 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons butter, room temp
1/2 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream or yogurt
zest and juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
steps
Poaching the pears
Prepare poaching syrup: In a sauce pan, bring the water, sugar, lemon, and cinnamon stick to a simmer.
Poach the pears: Carefully add the pears to the liquid and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let the pears cool in the poaching liquid. Once cool, remove pears from the liquid, cut in half, and scoop out the core and stem. Slice each pear half into thin horizontal slices, slightly fanning out the slices but keeping them in the shape of the pear halves.
Making the cake
Preheat oven to 350 F
Mix dry ingredients: Sift together the flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt.
Cream butter: Using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time. If your mixture starts curdling, alternate adding the eggs with the dry ingredients and the sour cream. Continue folding in the rest of your dry ingredients along with the lemon zest.
Assemble: In a parchment line cake pan, spread the batter evenly - this will be a relatively thick batter. Arrange the slices pear halves fanning out from the center, gently nestling the pears in the batter but don’t push down too hard as the batter will rise around the pears. Arrange them tightly but neatly - I was able to fit 5 pear halves, leaving one pear half to snack on. Sprinkle juice of half a lemon over the pears, and sprinkle the leftover sugar and cinnamon over top.
Bake: Bake in preheated oven for 50 - 60 minutes, until cake is rich golden crust. Let cool for 15 minutes, and dig in! Serving this immediately has a fantastic crumb topping but it’s also delicious after refrigerating overnight.
