Pear and chocolate cake

This is my best pear and chocolate cake recipe yet, it possesses a beautiful balance of flavors

For a 24cm tray

• 4 large eggs
• 4 conference pears
• 90g sugar
• 90g brown sugar
• 250g flour
• 150g butter
• 100g dark chocolate
• 15g cocoa powder
• Baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 spoon of koekkruiden
• Optionally an alcoholic drink of choice (rum is recommended)

Here is the process, step by step.

1. Clean and cut pears in 1cm thick pieces
2. Put the pears in a bowl and pour some of the alcoholic drink on them, mix by hand until all the pieces have been coated
3. Mix softened butter and sugar, pinch of salt, and spice mix
4. Add eggs and mix a lot, if you own an electric hand mixer do use it
5. Add cocoa powder, baking powder and flour and mix just enough, do not mix too much in order to prevent the development of strong gluten structures which would result in large bubbles in the baked cake
6. If you have bought a chocolate bar, crush it into somewhat large pieces, then add it and the pears to the dough and mix it lightly with a spoon
7. Pour in the cake in the shape
8. Bake 160 degrees ~70 minutes