TODAY’S RECIPE: Pear, hazelnut & chocolate cake

SERVE warm with cream. Makes: 8 slices.

Ingredients

100 g blanched hazelnuts

140 g self-raising flour 175 g butter, cut into small pieces 140 g golden caster sugar

2 large eggs, beaten 5 small, ripe Conference pears 50 g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

2 tbsp apricot jam

Method

1 Preheat oven to 160c/fan 140c/gas 3. Butter and line a 20 cm round cake tin. Grind hazelnuts in a food processor until fine. Add flour and butter until crumbly. Add sugar and eggs. Peel, core and chop two of the pears. Stir pears and chocolate into cake mixture.

2 Spoon mixture into tin and smooth top. Peel, core and slice remaining pears and scatter over cake. Press down lightly. Bake for 50 minutes. Cool for ten minutes, then turn out on wire rack. Warm jam and brush over top.