Oh go on then. We obviously haven’t had quite enough of National Chocolate Week yet and I did mention some Pear and Chocolate Brownies in my post yesterday so I am sharing…
This is a post for the Autumnal Baking Challenge over at What Kate Baked – there’s still time to enter so you might like to have a look too.
Pear & Chocolate is a classic combination and pears are one of my favourite autumnal fruits, which I try and incorporate in cooking and baking as much as possible. For these, I used my most turned-to chocolate brownie recipe which is one I saw during a Pampered Chef demonstration many moons ago and have never quite been able to improve upon.
The original recipe is called Banana Nut Brownies and uses two bananas instead of two pears and the addition of 100g mixed toasted nuts. Since I was baking these for the kids (mainly) I missed out the nuts because they would just sit there and insist on picking them out. Using pears instead of bananas gives the same soft, squidgy effect but with a different flavour. Healthy?!
As to whether or not they come out of the oven with a crispy top – it’s a bit hit and miss with this recipe. I think it probably depends on the moisture in the pears, they are crispier when made with banana but still very squidy in the middle. It doesn’t really matter to me – it’s chocolate after all. They keep very well in an airtight container AND this recipe is really easy as it doesn’t require a mixer of any kind so it’s a great one to make with the kids as it is really just measuring, pouring and stirring.
…