This morning at the groceries store there were Bosc pears for sale. Although it is not pear season,  they looked so good that I couldn’t help but buy them, and, as soon as I got home, I started making my favorite, low fat, pears and ricotta cheese coffee cake. Few ingredients and about 50 minutes baking. That is all this cake takes… and, of course, the passion for pears! 

INGREDIENTS FOR A 10″ round springform pan (or 24 mini muffins or 12 muffins)

1 lb. peeled Barlet or Bosc pears (400 gr.)

1 and 1/3 cups ricotta cheese (350 gr.)*

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour (250 gr.)

1 tbs. baking powder (16 gr.)

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar (170 gr.)

1 lemon zest

1 tbs. vanilla extract

(to assemble the cake, better if you use a springform bake pan)

DIRECTIONS

Peel the pears, and cut them in cubes. To avoid the cubes to turn dark, sprinkle them with a bit of lemon juice.  In a separate bowl, with an electric whip, whip the sugar, the vanilla extract and the ricotta cheese until creamy.

Then add the eggs and the lemon zest, and keep whipping.

Sift the flour and baking powder into the batter, but this time mix with a wooden ladle to keep the batter fluffy. Add the pears cubes and mix gently.

Pour the batter in a greased 10″ springform round pan and bake at 360 F. (180 C.) for about 50-60 minutes (before to take the cake off the oven, check with a stick if the cake is ready). Sprinkle with powdered sugar and if you like, serve the cake still warm.

LEARNT IT, MADE IT, LOVED IT!

TIPS: – *this cake is pretty skinny because the only fats used to make it are those coming from the ricotta cheese,  so don’t expect a super rich flavor. The taste of the cake is pretty delicate and if you opt to use park skim ricotta, it could turn out quite dry. I don’t mind it, but if you do, make sure you use regular ricotta cheese.

– I honestly tried to make this cake using brown sugar and unbleached flour… I loved it! So if you like non precessed ingredients, go ahead and use them! The cake will turn quite darker inside… 

– my daughters love this cake right as it is,  but if you want to make it a bit more appealing, you can add to the batter a handful of chocolate chips, and maybe make mini muffins instead of a coffee cake!

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Much thanks,

Silvia