Hello everyone,
Today I have a super simple 15 min prep 35 min bake cake that is perfect for an after brunch treat. It’s an Italian ricotta, pear and dark chocolate crumble cake. It’s very light and not excessively sweet. There is a mix of different textures soft pear, cheesecake like ricotta filling and crunchy streusel on top.
The recipe for this cake is completely fool proof and gives you a variety of flavour combinations. If you’re not a fan of pear you could just skip it and add more chocolate chips or make a blueberry and lemon version by adding blueberries instead of pears and lemon juice and zest instead of vanilla extract (I’m defiantly going to be testing that version soon). I can also imagine myself making this into a really delicious airman/winter dessert using plums and with amaretto or spiced pear and cinnamon crumb. The options are endless and that’s what make this recipe so exciting as you can rally put your mark on it and get your creative juices flowing.
In a way this reminds me of the generic custard tart but instead of custard that binds the fruit we have super light and delicious ricotta cheesecake feeling. You could probably get really fancy with presentation and use pear quarters that will be placed on top of the cheese layer.
Without further a due… here it is the easiest cake you will ever make!
Ingredients:
Pastry:
- 110g of unsalted butter
- 70g of icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp of Baking powder
- 250g plain flour
Ricotta filling:
- 400g of ricotta
- 70g + 10g of icing sugar
- 1 Teaspoon of vanilla paste
- 70g of dark chocolate chips
- 3 pears
- 1 tsp of lemon juice
Method:
1. Peel, core and cut the pears into medium size cubes. Heat up a knob of unsalted butter on the frying pan add pears, 10g of icing sugar and lemon juice. Cook on a low heat for about 7-8 minutes until soft. Set aside to cool.
2. Set the oven to 180C/160C Fan. In a large bowl add together icing sugar, flour, baking powder, butter, vanilla extract and egg. Using your hands combine the ingredients until it looks like breadcrumbs.
3. In a separate bowl mix together ricotta, icing sugar and vanilla paste. Fold in the cooked pears and chocolate chips.
4. In a 22cm baking tin lined with baking paper sprinkle half of the bread crumb mix to cover the bottom of the tin. Then press with your hands making sure the bottom is evenly covered. Add ricotta and pear mix then sprinkle evenly the remaining breadcrumbs
5. Place into the middle shelve of the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave in a baking tin to cool.
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