85g gluten-free dark chocolate, broken into pieces.
1 tbsp brandy
3 eggs, separated.
85g hazelnuts or almonds, toasted and ground in a food processor.
4 very ripe pears, peeled, halved, and cored.
Icing sugar, for dusting
Method
Grease the sides of a 25cm loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Sprinkle in 2 tbsp caster sugar and swirl it around to coat the base and sides, then tip out any excess.
Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water, remove from the heat, stir in the brandy and leave to cool.
Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick; then fold into the cooled chocolate along with the ground hazelnuts or almonds.
In a separate bowl, with a clean whisk, beat the whites until they reach a soft peak (don’t over beat).
Stir a spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mix, then carefully fold in the rest of them.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Level it off, then arrange the pears, cut side down, over the mixture.
Bake for about 40 mins until the pears are soft and the cake is cooked all the way through.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before releasing it, then place on a rack to cool completely.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche.