Unlike lighter, flour-based cakes, tortes are traditionally rich and dense. Often made with ground nuts instead of flour, this gives them a fudgy, moist texture. Here, ripe pears sink gently into a dark chocolate and hazelnut batter, with the flavours of vanilla, almond and cardamom subtly enhancing the depth of the chocolate and teasing out the fruit’s perfume.
Pear, chocolate and hazelnut torte
Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr 15 min, plus cooling
Serves 8-10
150g blanched hazelnuts
200g dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa), roughly chopped
150g unsalted butter, cubed
150g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
4 large eggs, separated
¼ tsp fine sea salt
¾ tsp ground cardamom (from the seeds of 12-18 pods)
2 small ripe pears (conference, williams), peeled, quartered and cored
To finish
Icing sugar, for dusting
Creme fraiche or ice-cream, to serve
Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5, and line the base and sides of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
Put the hazelnuts on a small baking tray and toast in the oven for five to eight minutes, until light golden and fragrant. Leave them to cool, then blitz in a food processor until finely ground, but with a few nubbly bits for texture.
Put the chocolate and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set over but not touching a pan of barely simmering water. Stir gently until melted and smooth, then take off the heat. Add the brown sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, and whisk gently to combine. Leave to cool for about five minutes, then add the egg yolks and whisk gently to incorporate. Fold in the ground hazelnuts, salt and cardamom.
Put the eggs whites in the clean bowl of an electric mixer and beat with the whisk attachment on medium-high until soft peaks form. Stir a spoonful into the chocolate batter to loosen it, then gently fold in the rest in two batches. Keep a light hand while doing this, to retain as much air in the mix as possible.
Scrape the batter into the prepared cake tin. Slice each quartered piece of pear thinly but not all the way through the top, so they hold together, then arrange the pears, slightly overlapping, on top of the batter. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until set around the edges and the centre is still slightly wobbly. The pears will sink a little as the torte bakes.
Leave to cool in the tin, then release and transfer to a serving plate. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve at room temperature with creme fraiche or ice-cream.
