dark chocolate, pear and pistachio cakes - the christmas collection

dark chocolate, pear and pistachio cakes - the christmas collection

• 21 Dec 2011

I love letterpress and Alischa from Bespoke Press is an expert in the field. Alischa sent along this recipe for Dark Chocolate Pear and Pistachio cake and mentioned she often baked individual cakes for Christmas gifts. I thought that was a great idea and baked the cake in little bundt tins.



I'm not sure what it is about mini cakes but they just look so appealling!



Topping the cakes with the ganache was a bit of a labour of love. I was covered in chocolate and went out for dinner last Saturday night with chocolate stained fingers. Actually they're not looking that much better today.


Mini Dark Chocolate, Pear and Pistachio cakes (printable version)
adapted from Gourmet Traveller magazine, April 2010 - makes 4

Ingredients
150 gm (5 oz) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup pistachio kernels, plus extra to serve
100 gm (3½ oz) softened butter
100 gm (3½ oz) caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
100 g (⅔ cup) plain flour, sieved
Scant 1 teaspoon baking powder
½ Packham pear, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

Chocolate ganache
75 gm (2½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped
75 ml (⅓ cup) pouring cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF. 

Grease and flour 4, 1 cup mini bundt tins. Process chocolate and pistachios in a food processor until coarse crumbs form and then set aside.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the plain flour and baking powder. Stir through the chocolate and pistachio mixture then the pear before spooning the mixture into the prepared tins. 

Bake until an inserted skewer withdraws clean (35-40 minutes) then cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Turn out and cool on a wire rack.

For the chocolate ganache, place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat to just below boiling, add to the chocolate and stand until the chocolate melts, then stir until smooth.

Set aside until slightly thickened before pouring over the top and sides of the cakes. Scatter with the remaining pistachios before putting the cakes aside to set.

Cakes will keep stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.


I don't really 'do' Christmas so here's one of the little cakes in front of my version of a Christmas tree.

I hope you're enjoying the daily posts. See you all again tomorrow,

Jillian