I have never really cooked anything dairy free before but my friend has 2 little boys who are both dairy intolerant. She asked if I could create a sweet treat her little ones could enjoy and was hinting down the brownie route!
I thought I would go seasonal, I got some lovely conference pears in my latest Tesco shop and we all know pears and chocolate are friends.
Mine weren’t quite ripe so I just placed them in a saucepan with some cinnamon a squeeze of honey and half a mug of water and left them to simmer until they were soft.
I may try adding some melted 70 percent dark (which is often dairy free) chocolate to give this a real depth. I am quite pleased with the result. I mean, it’s defo not got that buttery taste you get from real dairy and the light texture eggs have. But it’s very tasty nonetheless.
Let me know what you think.
Please come over and follow me on Instagram.
Pre heat your oven to 160 degrees C, grease and line a 22cm round baking tin.
Ingredients
For the cake
3 medium conference pears cored and halved.
200g plain flour
200g sugar
80g cocoa powder
4 teaspoons baking powder
460ml soy milk or dairy milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
icing sugar for dusting the top of the cake
8 pecan halves for decorating
For the salted caramel sauce
1 can coconut milk
300g brown sugar
Salt to your taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g butter or dairy alternative
Method
Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl.
Mix all wet ingredients in another.
I use my kitchenaid but whichever way you choose add the dry to the wet slowly and don’t over beat.
You should get a nice cake batter consistency.
Pour in to the cake tin and place the pears in a pattern – cut side down.
Place the pecan bits in between each pear half.
Place in oven and bake for 40 mins, until the top is cracked and a skewer comes out clean. The pears do make the cake quite moist.
Once the cake is cool dust with icing sugar.
For the salted caramel sauce.
Place the sugar and coconut milk in a pan and boil on the hob until thickened. This varies but can take 30 mins. You don’t want into boil over or get too burnt.
Once thickened add the butter (or alternative) vanilla extract and salt to taste.
Drizzle on the top of the cake and pour the rest into a Kilner jar.
