Pear Walnut Upside Down Cake Food

PEAR & WALNUT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Pour melted butter into 9-inch round baking pan. Stir in 1/2 cup brown sugar. Arrange pear slices over brown sugar in single overlapping layer. Sprinkle with walnuts. Set aside.
• Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
• Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Beat in eggs. Reduce mixer speed to low; add dry ingredients, milk and vanilla. Beat just until combined. Gently spread batter over pears.
• Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Run knife around inside of pan to loosen sides of cake. Invert cake onto serving platter. Remove pie pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

UPSIDE-DOWN PEAR WALNUT CAKE

Steps:

• Set oven to 375 degrees.
• Prepare a 9-inch cast-iron skillet.
• In a bowl, combine together the flour and the next 7 ingredients (flour through cloves).
• In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, 1/4 cup butter and molasses; add to the flour mixture, stirring until smooth.
• In a cast-iron skillet, melt 2 tbsp butter.
• Stir in 1/3 cup brown sugar; cook over medium heat 1 minute.
• Remove from heat; sprinkle with walnuts.
• Place the pear slices in the bottom of the skillet.
• Pour the batter over the pears; bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake tests done.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack; invert the cake onto a serving plate.
• Serve warm, or at room temperature.

PEAR UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast, shaking the pan occasionally, until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool. Turn the oven temperature down to 325 degrees F.
• Stir together the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and corn syrup and evenly coat the bottom and sides of a 10 inch glass pie plate with the mixture. When the almonds are cool, arrange around the bottom rim of the pie plate, with a few in the center, pressing them into the brown sugar mixture. Arrange the pear halves like spokes of a wheel on top of the brown sugar mixture.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the pastry flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and thoroughly mix.
• In another bowl, whisk together the softened butter, sour cream, egg yolks and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer at medium speed about 1 1/2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until thick and smooth.
• Using a spatula, spread the batter evenly over the fruit, building up the outside edges so the cake will be level when baked. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool 3 to 5 minutes (no longer) and then invert onto a serving plate, repositioning the fruit as necessary.

MAPLE-PEAR UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Bring syrup to a boil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; cook 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat; arrange pears in pan in a spokelike fashion.
• Place pan over medium-high heat, and cook until syrup thickens (about 4 minutes), gently shaking pan frequently.
• Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife.
• Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through salt); stirring well with a whisk.
• Place sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended (about 2 minutes).
• Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
• Pour batter evenly over pear mixture in prepared pan; wrap handle of skillet with foil.
• Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center.
• Run a knife around outside edge.
• Cool in pan 5 minutes.
• Place a plate upside down on top of cake; invert onto plate.
• Serve warm.

PEAR WALNUT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• 1. Heat oven to 300 degress. Grease 9" round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
• 2. Topping: Pour melted butter over bottom of pan and swirl to evenly coat.
• 3. Combine sugar and cornstarch and sprinkle evenly over melted butter.
• 4. Peel, halve and core pears. Cut pear halves into 4 wedges each. Arrange pears in circular pattern and around cake pan with tapered ends pointing inward. Place two small wedges in center.
• 5. Cake: Pulse walnuts, flour, baking powder and baking soda in food processor until walnuts are finely ground, 8 to 10 pulses. Transfer walnut mixture to bowl.
• 6. Process eggs and sugar until very pale yellow. With processor running, add melted butter and oil in steady stream until incorporated.
• 7. Add walnut mixture and pulse to combine.
• 8. Pour batter evenly over pears.
• 9. Bake 40 minutes, rotate pan, bake additional 30 minutes.
• 10. Let cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool.
• 11. Enjoy!

PEAR AND WALNUT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE WITH WHIPPED CRèME FRAîCHE

Steps:

• For the cake:
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Cut a half-stick of butter into slices and place it and the brown sugar in the cake pan. Set the pan over a medium-high burner. Stir as the butter and sugar melt together and continue until the mixture gets pale and bubbly, swirly when stirred, and toasty brown, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool. (Note: If you'd rather not make the caramel in the cake pan, you can use a large skillet instead and simply pour the caramel into the cake pan when done.)
• Arrange the pear wedges in the cake pan in an even patter. Sprinkle the walnuts evenly over the pears.
• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
• Place the remaining 1 1/2 sticks of butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl. Beat the heck out of the butter using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a hand mixer until it gets lighter in both color and consistency. Add the sugar and beat until well blended and fluffy.
• Separate the egg yolks from the whites and set the whites aside in a medium bowl. Stir the yolks into the butter mixture until completely blended (no need to beat, and then stir the vanilla. Add half the dry ingredients and stir until mixed in. Stir in the milk until completely smooth, then the rest of the dry ingredients just until fully incorporated; set aside.
• Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the egg whites until very fluffy. The whites should look shiny with soft peaks-stop whisking before they get dry looking. Gently but thoroughly fold the whipped whites into the batter-all the air that you just whipped in will go out of the whites if you over-mix at this point. Pour the batter over the fruit and gently smooth the top.
• Put the cake in the oven and start checking for doneness in 35 minutes: peek in, give the pan a tiny nudge, and look for jigglyness in the center. If it wobbles and looks soft and crinkled on top, gently close the door and set the timer for 5 more minutes. If it's looking set, slide the rack out and touch the top of the cake with your fingers, testing for bounce-back. If your touch leaves a dent that stays, return the cake to the oven. If it does spring back, the final test is sticking a toothpick into center of the cake. When it comes out moist, but crumb-free, it's done!
• Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edge, invert a plate on top of the pan, and carefully but quickly flip it over. Tap the bottom of the pan if the cake doesn't fall onto the plate on its own. Lift the pan away and replace any pear slices that may have stuck there.
• When ready to serve, combine all the ingredients for the whipped crème fraîche in a large bowl; whip until thick and fluffy, but still soft.
• Slice the cake and serve each wedge with a dollop of whipped crème fraîche.

MAPLE PEAR UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small pan over medium heat; add maple syrup and brown sugar and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook for another 2 minutes; remove from heat and set aside. When mixture has cooled a bit, pour it into a 9-inch baking pan and arrange pear slices in an overlapping circle on top.
• With a handheld or standing mixer, beat remaining 8 tablespoons butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one egg at a time, continuing to mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
• Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three batches, alternating with milk; do not overmix. Carefully spread batter over pears, using a spatula to make sure it is evenly distributed. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and edges begin to pull away from sides of pan, about 45 to 50 minutes; a toothpick inserted into center should come out clean. Let cake cool for 5 minutes.
• Run a knife around edge of pan; put a plate on top of cake and carefully flip it so plate is on bottom and pan is on top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

PEAR-WALNUT UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, toss pears with lemon juice and vanilla.
• In 13x9-inch pan, melt 2/3 cup butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon over melted butter. Arrange pears in pan.
• Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, butter and eggs. Pour batter over pears.
• Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Let stand 5 minutes so topping drizzles over cake; remove pan. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool.