Pear and white chocolate hazelnut cake

How delicious does this look? As the first South African to receive a Michelin star (for his restaurant JAN, on the French Riviera), we reckon Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen knows his way around pâtisserie. He generously shared this recipe from his new cookbook with us – and it’s as delicious as it looks.

Photo courtesy of Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, 2016.

Pear and white chocolate hazelnut cake

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 40 minutes
Baking time: 50 to 60 minutes

Ingredients

• 100g hazelnuts, blanched
• 140g self-raising flour
• 175g butter, cut into small pieces
• 140g castor sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 4 medium-sized pears
• 50g white chocolate, chopped into small chunks
• 30ml apricot jam

Cooking method

1. Preheat the oven to 140 °C. Butter and line the base of a 20cm, round cake tin.
2. Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until fairly fine. Remove 30ml and set aside.
3. Add the flour to the remaining hazelnuts in the food processor and mix briefly. Add the butter and pulse until it forms crumbs. Add the castor sugar and eggs and mix briefly.
4. Peel, core and chop two of the pears. Stir the chopped pears and chocolate lightly into the cake mixture using a wooden spoon. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top.
5. Peel, core and slice the remaining two pears and arrange over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with the reserved chopped hazelnuts. Press down lightly and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until firm to the touch and golden in colour. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
6. Warm the jam and brush over the top of the cake. Dust with icing sugar if desired and serve warm or cold with cream or ice cream.

 

Taken from JAN – A Breath of French Air, by Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen (Struik Lifestyle).