You can have both actually! Amy Traverso, the Senior Food Editor at Yankee Magazine, came by Tonia's Kitchen to talk about her Pear Sticky Toffee Pudding. She told Tonia it's a very simple dessert to make and is really more of a cross between a pudding and cake. And to be exact, the cake part is really more of an upside-down cake, with the pear part bringing up the upside-down part. It's a delicious recipe for the fall!
Ingredients
2 medium unripe pears, peeled
¾ cup chopped pitted dates (about 7 large dates)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup boiling water
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (80 grams) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F and set a rack to the middle position. Take a standard 12-cup muffin tin and spray 8 wells with nonstick baking spray (you won’t be using the rest). If you don’t have baking spray, you can grease them with butter and then dust with flour.
Stand a pear upright on a cutting board. Slice down each side so that you have four ¼-inch-thick slices of pear. Repeat with the second pear. Lay each slice, rounded-side down, into the center of a muffin cup. Set aside.
Put the dates in a small bowl with the baking soda. Pour the boiling water on top and stir so that the dates are submerged, then let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes while you make the batter.
Using a stand or handheld mixer, beat the brown sugar and butter on medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly. Add the egg and beat until blended. Sprinkle in the flour, salt, and baking powder and mix on low speed until evenly combined.
Puree the date mixture in a blender or with an immersion blender, then add it to the batter and mix on low speed until evenly combined.
Using a tablespoon, drop the batter into each of the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly. It will settle around the pear slices. Bake until the cakes are fragrant and spring back lightly when poked, 18 to 20 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack (hold the rack against the muffin tin, then flip).
