Juicy Pear Chocolate Slice – stunning combination, isn’t! My dad loves the chocolate. Not only that, he is an expert. He likes its combination with certain fruits. He likes desserts just perfectly done, not too juicy, not too tough, not too sweet, not too blend. The secret is in quality of dark chocolate or cocoa powder. However, not more than 80% of the content, that doesn’t end well either.
Anyway, I enjoy baking for him every year. He is my top chocolate critic and I don’t even like chocolate, especially. Therefore, I need to challenge myself. I like to please an exceptional taste of my dad. I also look for a preparation, which gives me joy and fun. The fact, I am presenting The Juicy Pear & Chocolate Slice in here, means that it let to a successful result.
I got inspired by a recipe from a very interesting organization called Just Food Now. Check it out and enjoy with me.
Shopping list
The Dough:
225g of plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon of baking powder + ½ teaspoon of soda bicarbonate, sifted
55g of good quality cocoa powder, sifted
225g of caster superfine sugar
200g of butter, soft in cubes
3 whole free range eggs
50ml of lukewarm water
3 medium pears, washed, peeled, cleaned and finely chopped
The Topping:
115g of icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, sifted
50 ml double cream
100g of good quality dark chocolate (I used 70%) to decorate
Instructions
The Dough
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl place the flour with baking powder, soda bicarbonate, cocoa powder and sugar. Mix well until it becomes nicely brown.
Next, add cubes of butter and knead it well with hands into a homogeneous texture.
Then, use a mixer by adding 1 egg at the time. Pour in the water slowly. Stir.
By using a spatula, gently stir in pieces of pears, so they are equally placed in the dough.
Take a medium lightly greased baking tray lined with a baking paper (I used rectangle form of 35x20cm). Mold the mixture in and smoothen the top with spatula.
Bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes until the wooden skewer comes clean from the middle. Set it aside and let it cool down entirely.
The Topping
In a steam bath, place sugar with cocoa powder and mix well. Pour in little bit of double cream at a time until it becomes smooth and shiny texture with a desirable consistency.
Presentation
Slice the cake.
Fill a frosting bag up with The Topping and sprinkle each slice of the cake. Not a rocket science, all over the beauty.
Take the chocolate and some sharp knife. Pull the knife over the chocolate, towards you. Continue with the half of the chocolate. Then, grate the rest.
Sprinkle each piece of cake. This way, you create separated small tarts. For more tips, how to create chocolate curls, watch here:
Makes 10 serves.