Grappa Cake Italian Pear Cake Recipes

EASY ITALIAN PEAR CAKE (TORTA DI PERE)

Steps:

• Line a 9.5 inch round baking pan with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray.
• Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
• In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whip the sugar and eggs until you obtain a creamy and fluffy texture.
• Stir in the yogurt, butter, and vanilla extract. Use a fork or spatula to combine until smooth (not the electric mixer).
• In a separated bowl mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Sift in the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir gently until well combined. Add the pears and mix gently. Place the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too much on top tent with the top with foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
• Cool and dust cake with confectioner sugar. If desired, serve with freshly whipped cream.

GRAPPA-POACHED PEARS WITH SPECK

Steps:

• In a medium Dutch oven, combine the grappa, sugar, orange zest, salt, red pepper flakes, cloves, peppercorns, rosemary and 2 cups water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar; cook for 5 minutes. Carefully place the pears halves, cut-side down, in the poaching liquid. Cover with a piece of parchment pressed directly to the surface of the liquid, and simmer gently for 10 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pears to cool in the liquid for 5 minutes. Then remove the pears with a slotted spoon to a plate to cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• Cut each pear half into 4 wedges. Gather a few leaves of arugula and bundle them together with a pear wedge. Lay the bundle on one end of a piece of speck and roll up to enclose; secure with a toothpick. Repeat with the remaining pears, arugula and speck.

ITALIAN FRESH PURPLE GRAPE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously butter and flour the 9 inch springform cake pan, tapping out any excess flour. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the eggs and sugar until thick and lemon-colored, about 3 minutes. Add the butter, oil, milk and vanilla extract, and mix until blended.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add the lemon zest and orange zest, and toss to coat the zest with flour.
• Spoon the flour mixture into the bowl of batter and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix once more. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the liquids.
• Stir in about 3/4 of the grapes into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
• Place the pan in the center of the oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining grapes. Bake for about 40 minutes more, until the top is a deep golden brown and the cake feels quite firm when pressed with a fingertip.
• Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. After 10 minutes, run a knife along the sides of the pan. Release and remove the side of the springform pan, leaving the cake on the pan base. Serve at room temperature, cut into thin wedges.

GRAPPA CAKE ( ITALIAN PEAR CAKE )

Steps:

• Make pear cake: Preheat oven to 350 and lightly butter and flour an 8 1/2" springform pan, knocking out excess flour.
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
• In another bowl, with an electric mixer beat together butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour misture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until it is just combined after each addition. Stir in grappa.
• Peel and core pears; cut into 1/2" dice. Fold pears, raisins or prunes and pine nuts into batter. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle top with remaining tablespoons sugar. Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering to it, 45 - 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack and remove side of pan.
• Make grappa sauce: In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs, sugar and cinnamon until thick and pale. In a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt butter and stir in egg mixture. Cook sauce, stirring constantly, until it is thickened and registers 165F on a candy thermometer (c. 7 min). Remove bowl from pan; stir in cream and grappa. Serve cake with warm sauce.

PEAR CAKE WITH GRAPPA SAUCE

Steps:

• Make pear cake:
• Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly butter and flour an 8 1/2-inch springform pan, knocking out excess flour.
• In a bowl whisk together flour, cinnamon, and baking powder. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy and beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in flour mixture and milk alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating until just combined after each addition, and stir in grappa. Peel and core pears and cut into 1/2-inch dice. Fold pears int batter with raisins or prunes and pine nuts.
• Pout batter into prepared pan and sprinkle top with remaining tablespoon sugar. Bake cake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering to it, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack and remove side of pan.
• Make grappa sauce:
• In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs, sugar, and cinnamon until thick and pale. In a metal bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water melt butter and stir in egg mixture. Cook sauce, stirring constantly, until thickened and it registers 165°F on a candy thermometer, about 7 minutes. Remove bowl from pan and stir in cream and grappa.
• Serve cake with warm sauce.

PEARS BAKED IN GRAPPA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Peel, quarter and core the pears. Place them in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with sugar and grappa. Bake for 45 minutes, or until tender, depending on the ripeness of the pears.
• Sprinkle with chocolate and serve with creme fraiche.

APPLE-PEAR CRISP WITH GRAPPA-SOAKED RAISINS AND POLENTA TOPPING

Steps:

• To make the filling, in a large bowl, combine the raisins and grappa and let stand until most of the grappa has been absorbed, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
• Peel and core the apples and pears and cut them into 1/3-inch (8-mm) slices. Add the apple and pear slices to the grappa-soaked raisins along with the granulated sugar and vanilla. Toss well, then pack the mixture firmly into a 2-quart (2-liter) baking dish.
• To make the topping, in a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse the flour, nuts, brown sugar, polenta or cornmeal, and cinnamon a few times to combine. Add the butter pieces and pulse until the butter is finely broken up. Continue to pulse until the mixture just begins to clump together.
• Scatter the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake until the topping is nicely browned and the fruit is tender (a sharp paring knife inserted into the center meets no resistance), about 50 minutes.
• Serve the crisp warm with a pitcher of cold heavy cream or scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream (page 143).
• The polenta topping can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 2 months.
• If you're avoiding alcohol, you can skip macerating the raisins. You can substitute dried cranberries or diced prunes for the raisins.
• To make an APPLE-BLACKBERRY CRISP, in place of the grappa-soaked raisins, use 1 1/4 cups (6 ounces/170 g) blackberries; increase the apples to 8 medium (4 pounds/2 kg); omit the pears; and use 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• While the crisp bakes, have a sheet of aluminum foil on the oven rack below the crisp to catch any overflow of juices.

EASY AUTUMN PEAR CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Beat the first four ingredients in a large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until cake mix is moistened.
• Blend in 1/4 cup of the butter. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. The batter will be really thick!
• Spread batter into lightly greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Arrange pear slices evenly on batter, pressing lightly into batter.
• Sprinkle evenly with dry gelatin mix and cinnamon. Drizzle evenly with remaining 3 tablespoons butter; sprinkle with nuts.
• Bake 40 to 45 minutes.
• Can be served warm or chilled.
• Wrap up letovers and store in fridge.