Chocolate and Pear Torte

In a tiny ma and pa restaurant called Le Quincambosse near the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, I had a delicious chocolate and pear torte served in a creme anglaise, the memory of which has stayed with me ever since.  It was during my attempts to recreate that memorable dessert that I came up with the recipe for this cake, which is richer than the original and so more suited to pairing with cream, but excellent nonetheless.  It is rich, moist, gluten free and one of the easiest cakes I've ever made.

Ingredients

325g almond meal
300g caster sugar
8 eggs
60g cocoa powder
110g dark chocolate (1/2 a block of Cadbury's Old Gold Original), melted (can be omitted if you are cooking for the dairy intolerant)
 4 small-medium sized pears, peeled and quartered
1 cup pear juice
Optional: Handful of flaked almonds and ground cinnamon to top the cake.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Line the bottom of a 23cm springform tin with baking paper, and grease the sides (I use canola spray for this purpose).

In a small saucepan, place the pears and the juice, and simmer until the pears are completely soft.  Drain any excess liquid still in the saucepan, and mash the pear roughly. Let cool.

Put the almond meal, sugar, eggs and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine (so that all the ingredients are wetted and don't fly out of the bowl when you turn the beaters on).  Beat with electric beaters for a minute, or until you have a uniform batter.  Stir in the mashed pears and melted chocolate and mix thoroughly with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Pour batter into your tin and top with the flaked almonds and cinnamon. Bake for 45 minutes.

Allow the torte to cool slightly in the tin before removing. It can be served warm or cold, but I think the flavour and texture of this torte benefit from resting overnight. For this reason, it is a good prepare-ahead dessert.  Serve with cream.