It’s – already! – the blog’s third anniversary. For the occasion, I wanted to bake a special cake that represents typical French home cooking.
When we talk about French pastry, one often think of fancy pastries offered in neat boulangeries or pâtisseries pastry shops. Thus sooo beautiful and tasty. But a bit sophisticated and complicated to make. On the contrary, even if pastry is getting more and more popular and the fact that there are many mums, pastry addicts or future chefs that do prepare incredible things, in many homes, pastry is quite simple.
And this is the kind of dessert I like: few seasonal ingredients, not too long to prepare, not too much fat or sugar, focus on taste rather than presentation, no fuss… So for the blog’s third anniversary I decided to make such a dessert with this chestnut flour cake as the main ingredient.
I choose chestnut flour because a part of my family comes from Ardèche (let’s say roughly located West of the Rhone River, almost halfway between Lyon and the Mediterranée) where chestnut is cultivated and I ate tons of chestnut purée as a child. I know it’s a bit reach but with a fresh baguette, it was a great snack after a whole day skiing. I just love chestnut and really wanted start baking using chestnut flour.
A few information on the recipe
- The blend of chestnut flour and corn flour makes it a gluten-free cake.
- The cake is here prepared with ripe pears cut into thin strips but when it’s not pear season you can use pears in syrup or why not try another fruit.
- I wanted a cake that is not too sweet but you may want to add 20 to 30 grams of sugar.
- Use chocolate chips or chop chocolate coarsely. Not too fine because the larger pieces won’t melt completely and you will still feel chocolate chips.
Pear and Chocolate Cake with Chestnut Flour (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 120 gr brown sugar
- 100 gr butter melted
- 100 gr chestnut flour
- 50 gr corn flour
- 1 pack baking powder 11gr
- 3 pears
- 50 gr dark chocolate coarsely chopped or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 °C.
- Start by beating eggs with sugar until you get a smooth texture. Add chestnut flour, corn flour and baking powder, ideally previously sieved, and combine. Finally add the melted butter and combine again.
- Pour preparation in a greased and floured tin.
- Peel and seed pears. Cut each quarter into thin strips. Coarsely chop chocolate.
- Arrange pears by soaking them half or ¾ way in the batter. Here I’ve only used 2 ½ pears instead of 3. Sprinkle with chocolate and again lightly press on the larger pieces of chocolate.
- Bake at 180 °C for 35 to 40 minutes. Check with a sharp knife. When it is dry, the cake is baked.
Bon appétit !
My mom’s family hailed from the province of Avellino in Italy where the chestnuts are abundant and absolutely delicious. I love all things chestnut & stumbled upon your site looking for ways to use chestnut flour for holidays. I did a trial run yesterday for my husband’s birthday and wow! I did use all purpose in lieu of the corn flour, as I didn’t realize I was out.
This is a fantastic recipe—so moist, delicious and outside of the usual. The flavors blend beautifully. My only other change was adding a pinch of salt. As an avid baker myself I thought the bit of salt would wake everything else up.
Again, great recipe and thank you so much for sharing this and all your other fantastic recipes.