Pear and Chocolate Crumble
- Sweet
- Oven
Soft pear chunks under a buttery chocolate crumble that bakes to a crisp, deep golden top. A dense, rich dessert with a pinch of salt to sharpen the chocolate.
- Total
- 72 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 47 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Dicing · Whisking
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 180°C. Cut the pears into 2 cm chunks, discarding the cores, and spread them in a single layer in a 23 cm baking dish.
~8 min
A single layer lets the pear chunks cook evenly and release their juices so they soften rather than steam into mush.
Dicing Cut the pears into even 2 cm chunks so they cook at the same rate; uneven pieces leave some hard and others collapsing.
-
Melt 70 g of the butter in the oven in a small heatproof bowl for 3 to 4 minutes, until fully liquid, then set it aside to cool slightly.
~4 min
Cooling the melted butter slightly stops it from cooking the flour or scrambling the egg later and keeps the crumb tender.
-
Put the flour, 50 g of the sugar and the salt in a mixing bowl. Add the cooled melted butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse damp crumbs.
~5 min
Rubbing the butter into the flour coats it in fat, which limits gluten formation and gives a short, sandy crumble rather than a tough one.
-
Chop or grate the chocolate into small pieces and stir it into the crumb mixture with the black pepper, keeping a few pieces back for the top.
~3 min
The pinch of black pepper is there to lift the chocolate, not to make the dish spicy; leave it out if you prefer a plainer crumble.
-
Whisk the egg with the remaining 20 g sugar and drizzle it over the pears, tossing so every chunk is lightly coated.
~2 min
The egg and sugar coat the fruit so it holds its shape and the juices thicken slightly instead of turning watery.
Whisking Whisk the egg and sugar just until smooth and slightly pale; over-whisking whips in air that makes the coating foamy.
-
Scatter the crumble over the pears in an even layer, dot with the remaining 20 g butter cut into small pieces and finish with the reserved chocolate. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the topping is deep golden and the pear juices bubble at the edges.
~40 min
An even layer and dots of butter brown uniformly, and bubbling juices at the edge signal the fruit is cooked through.
If the topping browns before the pears feel tender when pierced with a knife, lay a sheet of foil loosely over the dish and continue baking.
-
Leave the crumble to stand for 10 minutes before serving so the juices settle and the topping firms up.
~10 min
Resting lets the juices reabsorb and thicken, so portions hold together instead of running across the plate.
