Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake

Soldiering on through Nigella's book we decided to have the gooey, chocolaty pear dessert that, in my opinion, ranks up there with the Eton Mess as a favorite. One of THE tastiest desserts we've had in awhile.

The desserts in this book are phenomenal but I'm afraid that we may have to give them a break in plowing through this book. For a bit. I have gained weight. Doug has gained weight. The dogs have gained weight....and no matter how I try and justify that some ingredients are low calorie like pears for example....the cup of sugar can't be helpful. AND most of her desserts call for heavy cream.

I love Nigella and her recipes......but I may have to space them out a bit.

Here are the essential ingredients. Stuff you'd most likely have in your pantry.
Get ready for an ooey, gooey, chocolate treat in just 45 minutes after you start!

28 ounces of pear halves in juice

1 cup sugar

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

¼ cup cocoa

10 tablespoons soft butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ready.... this is so easy.

Step 1 – Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease an 8 ½ inch square ovenproof dish.

Step 2 – Drain pears and arrange in base of the greased dish.



Step 3 – Put all remaining ingredients in a processor and blitz until you have a batter. I don’t have a large processor and just used a hand mixer. Worked fine!



Step 4 – Spread batter over pears and bake in oven for 30 minutes.



The smell of warm sugary chocolate was amazing. It was hard to let it sit 5 minutes.



Step 5 – Let stand 5 or 10 minutes and cut. Look at it...it's oozing chocolatly goodness and I assure you, melts in your mouth.



The recipe suggests you serve with chocolate sauce but we used Kahlua one night. Another night we used ice cream on the side.

Nigella Express
Store cupboard SOS section, Page 373