39 | 52 Spiced Pear Crumb Cake

I love fall. I really do.

That crisp cool air outside and cozy evenings at home involving blankets and candles.

And cake. Of course. Always.

This specific one is absolutely perfect for fall. You can taste the season in every bite.

Spiced Pear Crumb Cake

From The View from Great Island

For the filling:

4 ripe pears, peeled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
juice of 1/2 lemon 

For the dough:
227g (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
145g (2/3 cup) dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon allspice
260 g (2 cups) flour
55g (1/2 cup) pecans, chopped

For the glaze:
65g (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 

milk or cream to thin

• Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). 
• Combine pears, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Set aside. 
• Cream butter the sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt and all spices and mix well. 
• Add flour and mix until just combined (don't worry if the dough is crumbly - it's supposed to be like that). 
• Press 2/3 of the dough mix into a prepared springform pan (23-25 cm / 9-10 in). 
• Spread the pears out evenly on top of the dough. 
• Add the pecans to the remaining dough and crumble it evenly over the pears. 
• Bake for about 45 minutes. Let cool completely before glazing. 
• For the glaze mix the sugar, nutmeg and as much milk or cream as you need to get a nice glaze consistency. Drizzle over the cooled cake. 

 

My modifications:

None. 

The taste:

Autumnally delicious. Soul food. It will definitely warm you from the inside.

What's your favorite fall cake?

45*52 Red Cabbage-Pear Quiche

This quiche is packed with autumn goodness: 

red cabbage, leek, pears, potatoes.

Pure comfort food, if you ask me. And just perfect for the season.

Red Cabbage-Pear Quiche

From Le Menu 10/13

1 quiche crust or 1 round puff pastry

Topping

3 potatoes, cooked, peeled, in slices

1 leek, in rings

100 g (3.5 oz) red cabbage, shredded

150 g (5.3. oz) Gruyère cheese, shredded

1-2 pears, peeled, cored, in slices

Glaze

2 eggs

200 ml (0.85 cup) milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon salt

pepper

chives or parsley

• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
• Put quiche crust or puff pastry into round pie pan.
• Distribute potatoes evenly. Combine leek, cabbage, and cheese and put on top of the potatoes. Add the pears.
• Mix all ingredients for the glaze and pour over vegetables.
• Bake on lower oven rack for 30-35 minutes. Best served hot or warm.

My modifications:

The recipe called for quiche/pie crust but I used puff pastry.
It also called for chives but I replaced it with parsley.

The taste:

Autumnal. Healthy. Comforting. Very yummy (if you hadn't guessed that already).

What's your favorite comfort food for fall/autumn?

10/52 Crostata di Pere al Cioccolata

Another chocolate/fruit combination. Something that never gets boring.

At least I hope it also never gets boring for you, my readers.

So this one is a pear chocolate pie.
I saw it on the German TV show "Das perfekte Dinner" ("The perfect dinner") where each week, 5 strangers cook a 3-course meal for each other, one each day, at their homes. 

A couple of weeks ago, a girl named Sandy made an Italian-inspired dinner with this pie for dessert (served with vanilla parfait). The guests were not really over the moon about it but I thought it sounded good.

When a work colleague of mine mentioned last week that she absolutely loves pears, I thought of this recipe again and here we are:

Crostata di Pere al Cioccolata

Adapted from Sandy of "Das perfekte Dinner" (I don't know where she had the recipe from, so if you know the original source, please comment on this post)

Pie crust:

125 g (1.1 stick) butter

200 g (1.6 cup) flour

1 egg

125 g (0.6 cup) sugar

50 g  (1/2 cup) cocoa powder

Filling:

2-3 tablespoons orange marmalade

2-3 pears

Topping:

100 g dark chocolate

50 g (0.4 stick) butter

2 eggs

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

• For the pie crust, knead together all ingredients. Roll out and put into a prepared pie form.
• Coat crust evenly with orange marmalade.
• Peel the pears, cut into wedges and arrange on crust.

• Preheat oven to 200 °C (390°F).
• For the topping, melt chocolate and butter over hot water.
• Separate eggs. Beat the egg whites until stiff. 
• In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks with sugar. Fold in melted chocolate and stiff egg whites until just combined. Pour over pears.
• Bake until topping is firm.

My modifications:

None. 

But as you can see above, the recipe did not give an exact baking time. I baked my pie for 30 minutes. A little longer would have been good for the crust but would have burned the topping. So my suggested modification is to blind-bake the crust. I knew I should have done it but then didn't... Next time I definitely will.

The result and taste:

It was a real problem to get a piece of this pie on a plate and still have it look like a piece of pie (and not some kind of chocolate mash with pieces of pear in it). I meant to take a piece to work to give to my colleague but there was no way of doing that.
Blind-baking the crust, using pears that are not very juicy, and baking the whole pie a bit longer would probably help.

But the taste! Half-baked chocolate cookie meets juicy pears meets mousse au chocolate. That's the best way to describe what my (half-baked, mushy) crostata di pere al cioccolata tasted like. Divine! 

Who needs looks when you can have all the taste? That's my conclusion for this week.

Did anything you ever baked not turn out quite as planned? But still tasted good? 
Please share!