Chocolate Pear Pudding
by Nigella. Featured in NIGELLA EXPRESSIntroduction
This is a cross between Pears Belle Helene and Eve's Pudding, but the only important thing to remember is that this is easy, quick, very comforting and seems to please absolutely everyone. It's not hard to ensure you always have what you need in the house to make this. And, for hot days when baked sponge and sauce seems inappropriate, then bear in mind that canned (or bottled) pears and chocolate sauce — with or without vanilla ice cream — make a lovely pudding on their own.
As with any baking, you really do want to have all ingredients at room temperature before you start.
This is a cross between Pears Belle Helene and Eve's Pudding, but the only important thing to remember is that this is easy, quick, very comforting and seems to please absolutely everyone. It's not hard to ensure you always have what you need in the house to make this. And, for hot days when baked sponge and sauce seems inappropriate, then bear in mind that canned (or bottled) pears and chocolate sauce — with or without vanilla ice cream — make a lovely pudding on their own.
As with any baking, you really do want to have all ingredients at room temperature before you start.
Ingredients
Yields: 6-8 servings
For the chocolate pear pudding
- 830 grams pear halves in juice (2 cans)
- 125 grams plain flour
- 25 grams cocoa powder
- 125 grams caster sugar
- 150 grams soft butter (plus extra for greasing)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the chocolate sauce
- 200 grams dark chocolate (broken into pieces)
- 120 millilitres strong black coffee or 1 teaspoon instant coffee made up with 120ml / ½cup water from a freshly boiled kettle
- 90 grams caster sugar
- 120 millilitres double cream
For the chocolate pear pudding
- 28 ounces pear halves in juice (2 cans)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
- ⅔ cup superfine sugar
- 10 tablespoons soft butter (plus extra for greasing)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the chocolate sauce
- 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (broken into pieces)
- ½ cup strong black coffee or 1 teaspoon instant coffee made up with 120ml / ½cup water from a freshly boiled kettle
- 7 tablespoons superfine sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF and grease a 22cm / 8½ inch square ovenproof dish with butter.
- Drain the pears and arrange them on the base of the dish.
- Put all the remaining ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency.
- Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Let stand out of the oven for 5 or 10 minutes and then cut into slabs — I cut 2 down and 2 across to make 9 slices — and serve with chocolate sauce.
- To make the chocolate sauce, place the chocolate pieces in a heavy based saucepan with the coffee and sugar and melt over a low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Once it has nearly melted stir in the cream, and once it has made a smooth sauce take off the heat and pour into a jug.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF and grease a 22cm / 8½ inch square ovenproof dish with butter.
- Drain the pears and arrange them on the base of the dish.
- Put all the remaining ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency.
- Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Let stand out of the oven for 5 or 10 minutes and then cut into slabs — I cut 2 down and 2 across to make 9 slices — and serve with chocolate sauce.
- To make the chocolate sauce, place the chocolate pieces in a heavy based saucepan with the coffee and sugar and melt over a low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Once it has nearly melted stir in the cream, and once it has made a smooth sauce take off the heat and pour into a jug.
Additional Information
MAKE AHEAD / STORE:
The sauce can be made 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge until needed. Reheat very gently in a saucepan over a low heat or in short bursts in the microwave. Leftovers of sponge and sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge. Reheat individual portions of leftovers in the microwave.
MAKE AHEAD / STORE:
The sauce can be made 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge until needed. Reheat very gently in a saucepan over a low heat or in short bursts in the microwave. Leftovers of sponge and sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. If frozen, thaw overnight in the fridge. Reheat individual portions of leftovers in the microwave.
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Show more commentsGreat dessert! Instead of the chocolate sauce, I put a few peices of dark chocolate in the pudding as soon as it came out of the oven, waited for 10 min. It was like a giant pear-chocolate-moelleux. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a shot of vodca to bade in, sprinkled a little espresso powder on top, ... real heaven.
Easy to make and tastes great. We prepared it in advance and then popped it in the oven as we started our main course. 35 mins later we had a warm, slightly gooey desert. We served with ice cream.
Made this pear chocolate pudding today, my hubby loved it served it with chocolate custard!
The pears and chocolate make for a very unique flavor combo. Very rich cake that is super easy to prepare.
Have made this pudding many times and it always works and satisfies the "table". Brilliant!
Made this and took uncooked to our friends house for dinner, put in oven while we were eating, absolutely delicious. We had it with Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream. It made me dig out and dust off the food processor, why dont I use it more! Will definitely try other fruit variations too.
This is my daughter's favourite cake, but we make it with peaches. We loved it.
Have just made this. Took 5 mins off the bake time which left the middle like molten chocolate!! Absolutely delicious recipe and will definitely become one of my go to puddings
Always amazing like your other recipe, ur the best!!
This pudding is terrific and very easy to make. It also works well made in advance (which is a big thing with me): I've made it all up in advance hours before I need it, then chucked it in the oven at dinner time. It's a good 'big pan' dessert but also works quite well done in ramekins for individual portions.
I love this pudding! The combination of pear with chocolate is great and I especially like the molten chocolate part :)
Printed this recipe out some time ago and put it in my dessert folder. Finally tried it last night. What was I waiting for! I made it with GF flour, and DF margarine, to cater for food intolerances and it worked a treat. I loved that I could have all the ingredients measured out, the pears ready in the dish. To serve it fresh, it just took a few minutes to mix it in the food processor, put it in the dish and then let it cook while we chatted between courses. I served it warm with custard. I think chocolate sauce might have been a bit too rich for the the oldies in the party. I've now transferred this to my recipe book app where I put my tried and true recipes.