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To live and enjoy every day to its fullest, use my gifts to help others, I travel to wherever passion finds me.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

PEAR TORTE


One of my favorite desserts has a soft, not too sweet flavor. This pear torte is actually very tasty with whole wheat flour.

One time our landlord visited us and came with this Pear Torte she had baked. She had inherited the house from her mother. Her mother had been a cook for the baroness, who gave her the house when she became too old to work. In one of the next posts I'll tell more about this story.

PEAR TORTE

Grease and flower a 10 inch diameter round baking pan (or line the baking dish with wax paper).

1) In separate pan boil the pears covered for about 5 min. or till medium soft. Drain and set aside (do not rinse, because the wine and cinnamon give the pears more flavor)
4-5 medium Bosc pears
1 cup of white wine
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2) Cream together
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar


3) Add one at a time
3 eggs

4) Mix and add to the above
2 1/2 cups flour
4 teasp. baking powder
6 Tablesp. milk
1 1/2 teasp. cacao
6 teasp. quick cooking oatmeal
1 teasp. rum (optional)
pinch of nutmeg

4) grate 2 squares of baking chocolate (or cut in chunks)
and stir into batter




Put 2/3 of batter in baking pan. Place pear halves with flat side on bottom.
Then put rest of batter on top and sides. It is okay if some parts of the pears peek through.
Bake at preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or
approximately 175 degrees Celsius for 40-45 min.

Every oven is different, so check at least 10 min. before time if the batter is done.The consistency of this torte is chewier than a most cakes, especially if you choose to make it with whole wheat flour.
Optional: serve with powdered sugar on top, or whipped cream.
So, what flour sounds better to you?

9 comments:

Carol Murdock said...

That sounds really tasty and fairly simple to make.I may just give this a try! Thanks!

Carol

Jeannette StG said...

Carol,
I hope you will, you wont' be sorry! Have a great weekend.

Catherine said...

This looks delicious! We don't have any pears for cooking here except tinned ones so I might try it with cooking apples and add some more sugar to get rid of the sourness. The batter looks good though I have to work out the cups as I am used to ounces and grams here, quite happy in both metric and imperial measurements but cups kinda wreck my head! I have some conversion tables in cookery books so no real excuse.
Lovely post!

Jeannette StG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Irene said...

Hi Jeanette, I've come to visit you're blog and added it to my google reader, so I'll be by regularly. That pear torte looks delicious! It is making my mouth water. I used to live in California. I lived there for 22 years, before I came back to the Netherlands. My kids were born there and also used to have an Opa and an Oma. We would go to the Dutch store and buy hagelslag. I have lived in the Netherlands now for 15 years and am a Dutch woman again, but I always stay a bit international.

Jeannette StG said...

Catherine,
sorry, I looked if I could find the original Dutch recipe, but I probably threw it away. Maybe wait till pears are in the store? (Bosc pears are the only baking pears I know in the US, but in Holland there are a few kinds) - the only conversion I saw in my cookbook is that
1/4 cup equals 60 millilitre.
good luck with the measurements!

Jeannette StG said...

Irene,
No wonder your English is so perfect! How long did it take you to get used to Holland again?
Yes, once a month I go the (probably the same) Dutch store, and get hagelslag and beschuit, boerenkaas and drop (in the winter) - works much better than the normal coughdrops, and also the Indonesian stuff (I am Dutch-Indonesian , but I only know 2 dishes, LOL). Groetjes

Catherine said...

THanks Jeannette for all the effort of looking up the dutch recipe. I appreciate it and I will look out for cooking pears in the farmers' markets when the season rolls around - autumn I guess, like apples. We still have some of last year's apple harvest in the shed, but no pear trees.
I see another Dutch former expat visited your page (Irene) and laughed at the hagelslag and drop - two favourites in our house, and we always have to buy them in either Holland on visits or get friends to bring them over or if we visit our son in Spain there are lots of Dutch products in the shops as it is an area popular with Dutch sunseekers!
yes it is the middle of the night here when I do most of my blogging, I work by day and chill in the early evening, reading or knitting or whatever relaxation is called for, and usually glance at the posts before going to bed, which can delay me for another hour or so!
Thanks again, will keep the recipe flagged for future reference.I'll manage the conversions.

Jeannette StG said...

I think I may have answered you on this comment on your blog, but I'm not sure! How nice to have a son in spain - that way you have a reason to go there :) We went there for our honeymoon - to the South Coast -the birthdplace of Picasso, but I'm blanking out on its name right now LOL