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Pear Almond Cake with Creme Anglaise

Pear Almond Cake with Creme Anglaise -A wonderfully moist and nutty flavoured cake with sweet pears baked right in and served with warm Creme Anglaise custard. A superb Autumn comfort food dessert.

Course Brunch/Dessert, Dessert
Cuisine British Inspired
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 14 or more servings
Calories 442 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

  • 3-4 medium sized pears peeled cored and quartered
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 cups butter (+ 1/4 cup / 55g butter )
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon

For the Crème Anglaise

  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds from one small vanilla pod
  • 3/4 cup whole milk or use half milk and half whipping cream for a richer sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To Prepare the Pears

  1. Heat the 1/4 cup butter and brown sugar together in a large sauté pan until bubbling. Add the pears and nutmeg and cook until the pears are softened, tossing occasionally.
  2. To prepare the Almond Cake
  3. Cream together the 1 1/2 cups butter, sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
  4. Add the eggs one at a time and beating after each addition.
  5. Sift together the flour, almonds, baking powder, pinch salt and cinnamon.
  6. Fold into the creamed butter mixture just until the flour is incorporated.
  7. Spoon the batter evenly into a greased and floured 10 inch spring form pan (no smaller!) Arrange the pears on top of the batter and pour the pan drippings from the sautéed pears over the top. Bake for about 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees F or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Serve warm with clotted cream or Crème Anglaise.

To make Creme Anglaise

  1. Scald the milk almost to boiling. Add vanilla seeds or extract at this point.
  2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar well together until pale.
  3. Slowly pour about 1/2 cup of the scalded milk to the whisked egg yolks and sugar whisking very quickly as you pour.
  4. Add this mixture to the pot along with the rest of the milk and stir constantly with a wooden spoon over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.