This Flourless Chocolate Pear Hazelnut Cake is absolutely delightful with a melt in your mouth brownie-like texture. It is made with pure dark chocolate and ground roasted hazelnuts and sweet ripe pears baked right in. This is what happens when a sponge cake meets fudgy brownie - expect a moist and chocolatey, yet soft and almost delicate texture. The cake so fudgy and rich, yet light at the same time due to the lack of flour. This recipe is elegant to serve at a dinner party, and also approachable enough to serve at brunch.

WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE

Stunning tall cake - this is a tall, decadent and sophisticated dessert that presents itself magnificently.
Delicate light texture - like many flourless cakes, this one contains a good amount of eggs. Egg protein provides structure in cakes and, without the functional protein provided by wheat (ie. gluten), extra eggs are required as reinforcements. No flour means that this cake feels quite light despite how rich it looks.
Fudgy flourless chocolate cake - even though this cake is light, it's not lacking richness. The melted chocolate gives this cake a fudgy texture and it is so moist without the flour.
Pear upside down cake - I use sweet ripe Bosc pears and cut them into big wedges so you get big bites of fresh pear in every slice.
Roasted hazelnuts - there is so much hazelnut flavor from roasting them deeply before grinding them.

INGREDIENTS

Here are some notes about the ingredients. For a full list of ingredients, check out the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

Granulated sugar - simple white sugar will keep this cake moist and not too sweet. You only need about ½ cup for this recipe.
Pure vanilla extract - vanilla enhances the flavor of the hazelnuts.
Eggs - 4 whole eggs will set the structure of this cake and add lift in the absence of flour.
Butter - butter gives so much richness and is an amazing carrier of the nutty hazelnut flavor.
Hazelnuts - for the best flavor, roast the hazelnuts before you chop them. The fastest way to do this is to place them in a dry frying pan over medium heat and shake the pan frequently until they are golden and fragrant. Ground nuts or nut meals work well in cakes as they absorb moisture quite readily to help with binding and they have a high oil content to keep things moist. The worst is a dry gluten-free cake - those are the ones that make people roll their eyes at the thought of "gluten-free".
Dark chocolate - you'll need pure melted dark chocolate to make this cake. It is important to use bittersweet chocolate with 70% cocoa solids because the cocoa solids will help to add structure to this flourless cake.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

STEP 1). Line the base of an 8-inch round non-stick springform pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper and sprinkle a tablespoon of raw sugar over it. Arrange the sliced pears in a circle (or something like it) around the base.
STEP 2). Melt chocolate with butter and salt in a small saucepan over very low heat and set aside to cool slightly.
STEP 3). In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar until very pale and thick and nearly tripled in volume. This will take 3-5 minutes on high speed. Fold in ground hazelnuts and vanilla extract. Stir through the cooled melted chocolate mixture and set aside.
STEP 4). In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites with remaining sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until very stiff and glossy. Gently fold it into the chocolate mixture.
STEP 5). Pour the batter evenly over pears in the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until puffed and slightly cracked at the surface. A skewer inserted into the center will come out with some moist crumbs. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

EXPERT BAKING TIPS

Do not disregard the quality of chocolate for this recipe. Stick with 70% cocoa solids - this is important! Remember that whatever is not cocoa solids is sugar. So if we use 150g of 70% chocolate, then 45g of that chocolate is sugar. That's nearly ¼ cup of sugar. Also, the dry matter of cocoa solids (which is much like cocoa powder) contributes structure to this bake. So cocoa content matters! Word.
Beat the egg yolks to their fullest. There is no chemical leavening in this recipe. Not dissimilar to most sponge cakes, here we rely solely on air beaten into the eggs to build the batter. To get as much air out of the eggs as possible, we beat the yolks separate from the whites and build air into each component separately. Beating the yolks and whites with sugar keeps them stable and again helps with air incorporation.