Dark chocolate pear and walnut bundt

I have been craving a pear and walnut chocolate cake, don't ask me why. The caveat was that I needed to use my bundt so after looking around, I settled on this recipe by Sugar Love & Spices for Ciambella dark choc, walnut and pear cake. (no video - I wish there was because I don't know if I'm doing it wrong!)

Ingredients

100g milk

60g dark chocolate, chopped

125g sugar

3 eggs

120g butter, room temp

135g flour

30g cocoa

Pinch of salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

Pinch of cardomon (optional but I had it)

4g (1 tsp) baking powder

70g walnut, toasted and chopped

1 pear, peeled and cubed

Method

1. Prepare the bundt tin by oiling and flouring or covering with goop. I took the extra step of sifting on cocoa powder.

1. In a small pot, heat the milk and sugar until dissolved. 

2. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until dissolved. Do not let the mixture boil. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Add the eggs one at a time and whisk to incorporate.

4. In a bowl, mix the dry powered ingredients: flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, cardomon, and baking powder. Mix well and set aside.

5. In a KA bowl, beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Scrape down.

6. Drizzle in the chocolate mixture at the side of the bowl slowly. Beat. The mixture will be clumpy and appear to seize up, do not panic.

7. Add the flour mixture 3 or 4 tbsp at a time and beat in at Speed 2. Once the flour has been mixed in, turn up to between Speed 4 to 6 but do not overbeat.

8. Fold in the chopped walnut and pear. The batter will be quite thick, like muffin mixture.

9. Spoon in the mixture and make sure to push the batter to the sides rather than near the funnel (otherwise the cake tends to peak in the centre). Bang the ban on a (protected) countertop to dispel air bubbles.

10. Bake for 180 deg C for 35 to 45 minutes. (mine took 34 because the oven temp was quite constant today but even then it was probably a bit over-cooked. 32 might have been enough)

11. Let the cake cool in the tin for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Then, put a serving plate tightly over the cake tin and invert. The cake should slide out easily if you prepared the tin correctly!

12. Store outside the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe feedback

- This yields a smaller cake than the previous chocolate bundt. It is not sweet but feels very dry even fresh out of the oven.

- The liquid goop (microwaved till runny) dusted with cocoa was a good idea in terms of looks.

- The batter was more muffin-like so it was very holey compared to the previous cake. However, nothing a dusting of powdered sugar can't solve!

- The cake tastes best the next day when it's less crusty and dry straight out of the oven. It stayed moist up to 2 days after, kept at room temp. I put a cup of water in with the cake in the airtight box and it really helped the cake stay moist!

Chocolate comparison recipes

Here are a list of comparison recipes for Bundt pans, to celebrate my new 10 cup or 2.6l bundt! I've chosen those that use the KA rather than the mix wet with dry method that muffins often use, because I want a moist cake rather than a light fluffy one. Bundt care from Williams Sonoma.

Goop recipe for lining the pan: Food Network goop

Walnut, chocolate, and pear

Sugar love spices: 10 - 12 cup bundt (tried here)

- Flour, baking powder, cocoa, milk, butter, dark choc block.

Giallozafferano: 9 inch round

- cake flour, powdered yeast, dark choc chips, oil, milk, lemon juice

Walnut and chocolate

Green Thumb Foodie: 9 inch round (not bundt)

- Flour, baking powder, cocoa, veg oil, milk

Alpine Ella: 8 inch square (not bundt)

- Flour, baking soda and baking powder, buttermilk, coffee, cocoa, veg oil 

- sour cream only if making frosting

Wholesome Pastisserie: 8 inch round (not bundt)

- Flour, baking powder, coffee, cocoa, butter and olive oil

- Choc block and heavy cream only if making granache

Mocha

RecipeTinEats easy choc fudge cake: 9 inch round (not bundt)

- Flour, coffee, Cocoa, baking powder, boiling water

- Choc and heavy cream only if making granache

Chocolate bundt

Baker by nature: 10 to 12 C bundt

- Flour, baking powder, Cocoa, coffee, butter and oil, brown sugar, sour cream

- Choc block and heavy cream if making granache

Two peas and their pod: 10 to 12 C bundt

- Flour, Cocoa, baking soda, sour cream or yoghurt, butter

- Choc block, heavy cream, and corn syrup only if making granache

Fool proof living: 10 inch bundt (aka 10 - 12 C)

- Flour, cocoa, baking soda, sour cream, butter

- Choc block, heavy cream, honey, and nuts for glaze

Williams Sonoma: 10 C bundt

- Flour, cocoa, semisweet chocolate, sour cream, baking soda, boiling water, butter, brown sugar

- Choc block, butter, heavy cream for granache

Mocha bundt

King Arthur: 10 to 12 C bundt (tried here) - no KA

- Flour, Cocoa, coffee, baking power and baking soda, sugar, sour cream or yoghurt

- Choc block and heavy cream only if  making granache

A pretty life in the suburbs: 10 C bundt (my exact model) - similar to above but uses mixer

- Flour, coffee, cocoa, baking powder + baking soda, oil, yoghurt

- No glaze

Yu Sheng Lo hei

I really miss lo hei. Seeing my friends posting pictures of lo hei, and it's not even CNY yet! So for reunion dinner tonight, my first reunion dinner in AU, I decided to DIY. I found this recipe by Noob Cook and decided to try it out. Being in a foreign country, I had to improvise. I'm sure if I trawled Sunnybank (the Chinese suburb) hard enough, I would be able to locate more of the ingredients (altho I'm still pretty sure pomelo would be elusive), but I wasn't about to brave the Chinese crowds, or risk the shops closing on me. So here's my highly improvised recipe.

Ingredients (for 2)
1 Carrot
1 Cucumber
2 small pears (to replace daikon. I used a harder and less juicy pear - Wiliam Barnett- so it would't be too soggy)
2 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp chopped Japanese ginger (the pink one)
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pepper (white is preferred but I only had black)
2 tbsps olive oil
1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds
2 tbsp Captain Crunch (to replace crushed toasted peanuts and the crispy Pok Chu)
Optional: raw salmon. My version had no raw fish and hence can be considered vegetarian, but I would have used smoked salmon had I remembered to buy it!

Method
1) Use the peeler to peel slivers off the carrot, cucumber and pears. Arrange separately in a deep bowl.
2) Gather family (and/or friends). While adding each of the other components, say the necessary prosperous greetings (check original Noob Cook article)
3) Get family and/or friends to hold their chopsticks and as everyone mixes up the salad, tossing as high as they can and saying auspicious greetings like lo hei and fa da chai.

Pear and white fungus soup

Wanted to make this for a long time but never had the chance. Surfed and found a few recipes, and these were the easiest which I adapted. Benefits of Honey link and Soup Queen link. I was too lazy to double boil, and so I just used my special AMC pot's heat retaining properties, but this recipe is for normal pots. The result went down well, even with a year old toddler.

Ingredients (feeds 10 - yes there are a lot of people to feed in my extended family!)

5 pears, Chinese Ya pear or fragrant pears are both ok

10 - 15 red dates

2 bundles of white fungus

1 packet (about 150g) winter melon strips

Approx 2 - 3l of water

Method

1) Soak the white fungus in hot water for 20 minutes. Once softened, remove the hard yellow core and cut up into bite-sized pieces.

2) Pare and core the pears and slice them 1/8 inch thick. I soak them briefly in some salt water to prevent them from turning brown.

3) Pour dates and pears into a pot, and add enough water to cover all the ingredients.

4) Bring to a boil and boil at medium heat for 20 minutes. Turn down the heat to a simmer for 10 minutes. Add the winter melon strips and white fungus and simmer for another 20 minutes. If you prefer less crunchy fungus, you can add it earlier, around the time u turn it down to a simmer.

5) Serve either warm or ice cold.