A reinvented soft yogurt cake: pear adds melt-in-your-mouth texture, Sichuan pepper provides its vibrant citrus signature, ginger offers gentle heat, and a soy-cherry syrup pulls it all together with fruity umami.
Ingredients
- 125 g whole-milk plain yogurt
- 150 g T55 all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 90 g granulated sugar
- 80 ml neutral oil (sunflower)
- 1 packet baking powder
- 2 very ripe Conference pears
- 1 cuillère à café bombée (≈ 4 g) Sichuan peppercorns
- 15 g fresh ginger
- 120 g pitted fresh or frozen cherries
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 30 g brown cane sugar
- 10 g salted butter
- 1 tsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 pinch fleur de sel
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly butter a loaf pan or 2 small individual molds.
- Dry-toast the Sichuan peppercorns in a hot skillet for 1 minute 30 seconds until they barely smoke and become fragrant. Crush them coarsely in a mortar (do not grind them to a fine powder: you want some texture).
- Peel and finely grate the ginger, then squeeze it between your fingers to extract the juice (≈ 1 teaspoon). Reserve the juice and pulp separately.
- Peel the pears, cut them into 4 wedges, remove the core, then cut into small dice (≈ 1 cm). Toss them with the ginger pulp and 1 teaspoon of the sugar, taken from the 90 g.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the remaining sugar for 1 minute. Add the yogurt, oil, ginger juice, and 1/3 of the crushed toasted pepper.
- Gently stir in the sifted flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Mix just until combined. Fold in the diced pears.
- Pour into the pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes: a knife blade should come out clean, but the center should remain soft.
- Meanwhile, prepare the soy-cherry syrup (see prepared component).
- When out of the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, unmold, and coat with the syrup while still warm so it soaks in.
- Just before serving, gently reheat the remaining syrup with the 10 g of salted butter, and drizzle it over the plate. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining Sichuan pepper and a pinch of fleur de sel.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 1090.9 kcal
- Protein
- 18.42 g
- Carbohydrate
- 128.04 g
- Fat
- 56.04 g
- Fibre
- 4.63 g
- Calcium
- 175.47 mg
- Iron
- 1.55 mg
- Magnesium
- 45.11 mg
