Oh, BTW, yeah, I've been AWOL, but I'm tweeting! smileys/smile.gif Shoulder surgery went well smileys/smile.gif
All right, so I made this thing and while the recipe didn't turn out quite right, it was scrumptious.
I'd never done this before. I made a few fumbles which caused the result to not be as smooth as it could have been. Looking at what went wrong, I realised that the butter wasn't nearly soft enough. I didn't use an electric beater as recipe calls for, but that's never been an issue before. Part of the problem is I interupted the beating of butter/sugar to shell/peel pistachios, and it was colder than Antartica in Winter in the kitchen. So the butter seized up and when I added the eggs, it didn't mix up as well as it should have. So! Lesson learned.
Chocolate, pear & pistachio loaf
150g/5 1/2oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
150g/5 1/2oz/ 2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1tsp vanilla essence
200g/7oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
60g/ 2 1/4oz/ 1/3cup pistachio nuts shelled
150g /5 1/2oz / 1cup self-raising flour
- Preheat oven at 180C. Grease a 24x12cm loaf tin with butter
- in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, using an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well in between, then add the fanilla essence. Fold in the chocolate, pear, pistachio nuts and flour until just combined, using a wooden spoon. Pour into the prepared tin.
- Bake in the hot oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool for 10 minutes. Then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
FWIW, I don't like at all how this recipe is written. Thinking about this recipe further, it looks quite similar in many ways to how I do pound cake. Next time I try it, which should be by weekend as I have all ingredients and we ate it all already, I'll do things a bit differently.
I would get the butter nearly melted in the microwave before beating up with sugar. I would add the eggs in one lump and continue beating. Then add the rest.
I might also consider trying to beat butter with 2/3 sugar, then add egg yolks only, then add the "dry" stuff, finally beat the egg whites over light heat with remaining sugar, then fold all in together, but that's a bit more work, though should give a very nice result.
I didn't use a single loaf tin, I used mini-loaves. Reduced baking time significantly. smileys/smile.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/3634454885_caccf67d53_o.jpg
All right, so I made this thing and while the recipe didn't turn out quite right, it was scrumptious.
I'd never done this before. I made a few fumbles which caused the result to not be as smooth as it could have been. Looking at what went wrong, I realised that the butter wasn't nearly soft enough. I didn't use an electric beater as recipe calls for, but that's never been an issue before. Part of the problem is I interupted the beating of butter/sugar to shell/peel pistachios, and it was colder than Antartica in Winter in the kitchen. So the butter seized up and when I added the eggs, it didn't mix up as well as it should have. So! Lesson learned.
Chocolate, pear & pistachio loaf
150g/5 1/2oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
150g/5 1/2oz/ 2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1tsp vanilla essence
200g/7oz dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
60g/ 2 1/4oz/ 1/3cup pistachio nuts shelled
150g /5 1/2oz / 1cup self-raising flour
- Preheat oven at 180C. Grease a 24x12cm loaf tin with butter
- in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, using an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well in between, then add the fanilla essence. Fold in the chocolate, pear, pistachio nuts and flour until just combined, using a wooden spoon. Pour into the prepared tin.
- Bake in the hot oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool for 10 minutes. Then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
FWIW, I don't like at all how this recipe is written. Thinking about this recipe further, it looks quite similar in many ways to how I do pound cake. Next time I try it, which should be by weekend as I have all ingredients and we ate it all already, I'll do things a bit differently.
I would get the butter nearly melted in the microwave before beating up with sugar. I would add the eggs in one lump and continue beating. Then add the rest.
I might also consider trying to beat butter with 2/3 sugar, then add egg yolks only, then add the "dry" stuff, finally beat the egg whites over light heat with remaining sugar, then fold all in together, but that's a bit more work, though should give a very nice result.
I didn't use a single loaf tin, I used mini-loaves. Reduced baking time significantly. smileys/smile.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/3634454885_caccf67d53_o.jpg