Angie's Recipes . Taste Of Home

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Chocolate Pear Cake

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Chocolate and pears make an excellent combination in this irresistibly moist, rich and indulgent cake. It's mildly sweetened with a mix of coconut sugar and erythritol. A perfect cake to entertain or end a satisfying dinner.

45 g Unsweetened cocoa powder, lightly alkalized
5 g Espresso powder
10 g Baking powder
150 g Refined spelt flour
80 g Ground hazelnut
150 g Butter, slightly softened
50 g Coconut sugar
100 g Erythritol granules
Pinch of sea salt
3 Large eggs, room-temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
100 ml Whipping cream, room-temperature
5 Small ripe pears, peeled

Grease and line a 10-inch / 26cm springform pan with parchment paper. Sift the cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder and spelt flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in ground hazelnut. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
Cream the softened butter, coconut sugar and erythritol granules together for 5 minutes with a pinch of salt, then beat in the eggs one by one and vanilla extract.
Add in half of the flour mixture, roughly stir to combine. Pour in whipping cream and mix briefly. Now stir in the rest of the flour mixture until combined and smooth.
Scrape the batter into the cake tin and level the surface. Peel the pears and place them in the batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Check the cake with a skewer. If it comes out clean it is ready, if not give it a few more minutes in the oven.
Drizzle with melted chocolate and garnish with the sprinkles if desired.

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Sumac Rubbed Pork Roast with Crackling

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Succulent pork, crispy golden crackling and tender roast vegetables...this is a meal, inspired by taste and bbc food, that's guaranteed to please. Please a crowd with this effortless one-dish pork roast with crisp golden crackling.
Sumac comes from the berries of a wild bush that is native to the Middle East. The deep red berries are dried and ground into coarse powder. It's a widely used spice, either as a rub, or marinade, or in a dressing, in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking. Sumac has a pleasantly tart, tangy lemony flavour that goes really well meat and vegetables.

1.5 -2 kg Pork shoulder, or butt, skin-on
1 tbsp Lard, melted or oil
4 tsp Sumac
Sea salt to taste
1 Large onion, peeled and sliced
400 g Green beans
100 ml Chicken broth or water
1 tbsp Spelt flour

Remove the pork from the fridge for 1 hour before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F.
Dry the roast with a paper towel. With a small sharp knife, deeply score the skin at 1cm intervals, without cutting into the meat.
Rub the roast with lard or oil, lemony sumac and sea salt. Make sure the lard and seasonings are worked into the scores. Turn it over and season the underside of the meat with sumac and a few pinches of salt.
Place the pork, skin-side up, in a roasting tray and roast for 30-40 minutes, or until the skin has started to puff up and you can see it turning into crackling. Turn the heat down to 180C/350F and cook for a further 2 to 2.5 hours, or until cooked through.
In the last 30 minutes of cooking time, add the onion and green beans into the roasting tray and mix with the fat in the tray.
Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover again with tin foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes while you make the gravy. Transfer the green beans to a warm plate and set aside.
Scrape up all the sticky bits and onions from the tray and pour into a skillet. Stir broth and spelt flour together and add to the skillet. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Let it simmer for a few minutes until thickened.