I LOVE AUTUMN! It's my very favorite time of year! It's going by so fast, though. I need to get my bake on.
I've spent my free time of the last month moving into the new house (yay!) or working on my seasonal hibernation tactics (also yay... for me anyway). I haven't had a whole lot of time or resources to do much cooking, which is unfortunate for the goodies in my past two Full Circle orders. It seems that over the last month I've accumulated an abundance of Bartlett pears.
There's a common theme in my house when it comes to the produce delivery; much is done in the ways of utilizing the fresh veggies. Soups, roasts, stir-fry, all sorts of deliciousness has been experimented with, enjoyed, tinkered, etc. But the fruit often goes by the wayside. It's either eaten as it is or, as in the tragic case of last month's plums, it sadly spoils. What a waste!
So with my time today I was bound and determined to utilize what limited dishes I have unpacked and put the too-soft-to-eat, too-good-to-trash Bartletts to good use, somehow. I considered making the pear crisp that I shared last year in my Southern Comfort post, but that seemed too rich for today. I looked up bread recipes, muffin recipes, all of which appealed to me but didn't seem to really hit the spot for sweet. So I decided to make an amalgam of the baked goods I found to create my own Spiced Pear Bundt Cake.
My camera is still packed and I forgot that my new iPhone is fully functional in the needed capacity until I had already made the batter.
The batter will be lumpy, due to the grated pear, but I recommend mixing until just incorporated and then moving quickly to preserve all the leavening power you can from the wet baking soda and baking powder, much like when making muffins.
Another thing I'd like to recommend is to use some plastic wrap or foil to cover the hole in your Bundt pan before dumping your batter in there. Otherwise you'll likely end up with a mess. I speak from experience. (Sometimes the obvious things don't strike you when they should.) Remove the wrap before putting the pan in the oven though. Again... some obvious things...
To finish up the cake, depending on how rich you want it, you can make a simple glaze with powdered sugar and milk or buttermilk, if you so desire. I think it would also pair (I seriously just wrote "pear" and then had to backspace. Where is my mind today?!) well with a French vanilla or burnt sugar frosting. I chose to just dust the cake with powdered sugar.
The crumb is much like zucchini bread and the cake itself is just sweet enough, dense and moist. Flecks of pear are hidden like little fruit gems and the spice gives enough bite to keep it interesting. I think that it will make a nice, mild desert or a great breakfast with coffee. I imagine later in the season I'll pair it with some eggnog... Looking forward to that.
Spiced Pear Bundt Cake
I've spent my free time of the last month moving into the new house (yay!) or working on my seasonal hibernation tactics (also yay... for me anyway). I haven't had a whole lot of time or resources to do much cooking, which is unfortunate for the goodies in my past two Full Circle orders. It seems that over the last month I've accumulated an abundance of Bartlett pears.
There's a common theme in my house when it comes to the produce delivery; much is done in the ways of utilizing the fresh veggies. Soups, roasts, stir-fry, all sorts of deliciousness has been experimented with, enjoyed, tinkered, etc. But the fruit often goes by the wayside. It's either eaten as it is or, as in the tragic case of last month's plums, it sadly spoils. What a waste!
So with my time today I was bound and determined to utilize what limited dishes I have unpacked and put the too-soft-to-eat, too-good-to-trash Bartletts to good use, somehow. I considered making the pear crisp that I shared last year in my Southern Comfort post, but that seemed too rich for today. I looked up bread recipes, muffin recipes, all of which appealed to me but didn't seem to really hit the spot for sweet. So I decided to make an amalgam of the baked goods I found to create my own Spiced Pear Bundt Cake.
My camera is still packed and I forgot that my new iPhone is fully functional in the needed capacity until I had already made the batter.
The batter will be lumpy, due to the grated pear, but I recommend mixing until just incorporated and then moving quickly to preserve all the leavening power you can from the wet baking soda and baking powder, much like when making muffins.
Another thing I'd like to recommend is to use some plastic wrap or foil to cover the hole in your Bundt pan before dumping your batter in there. Otherwise you'll likely end up with a mess. I speak from experience. (Sometimes the obvious things don't strike you when they should.) Remove the wrap before putting the pan in the oven though. Again... some obvious things...
To finish up the cake, depending on how rich you want it, you can make a simple glaze with powdered sugar and milk or buttermilk, if you so desire. I think it would also pair (I seriously just wrote "pear" and then had to backspace. Where is my mind today?!) well with a French vanilla or burnt sugar frosting. I chose to just dust the cake with powdered sugar.
The crumb is much like zucchini bread and the cake itself is just sweet enough, dense and moist. Flecks of pear are hidden like little fruit gems and the spice gives enough bite to keep it interesting. I think that it will make a nice, mild desert or a great breakfast with coffee. I imagine later in the season I'll pair it with some eggnog... Looking forward to that.
Spiced Pear Bundt Cake
3 cups
all-purpose flour
1
teaspoon baking soda
1/4
teaspoon baking powder
1
teaspoon salt
1
tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup
chopped walnuts (optional)
3/4 cup
butter, softened, or 3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs,
lightly beaten
2 cups
sugar
2 cups
ripe pears (about 4); peeled and grated
2
teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat
oven to 350°F. Lightly grease and flour
a 10-inch Bundt pan
In a
large bowl, combine the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Set aside.
Peel and
core pears (I use a melon baller to core them). Grate
your pears into a medium sized bowl; a typical cheese grater size will
do. Stir in the rest of the wet
ingredients, making sure everything is very well blended.
Add the
wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moistened. Then quickly transfer your batter into your
prepared Bundt pan.
Bake for
1 hour, or until the cake is firm to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool
your cake for about 10 minutes on a wire rack, then turn it out of the pan
using the two-wire-rack technique and cool it completely. Once cool, transfer the cake to a serving
platter and top it as you so desire.
